Gravity Falls: Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian
by Crazy7634
Summary: Dipper and Mabel had always looked up to their older brother, especially in their times of need. He had always been their pillar of strength; he knew everything about them just as they knew everything about him. Or so they thought. After their parents ship them off to Gravity Falls to visit their Grunkle Stan, they find out that there was more to their brother than they thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! Crazy7634, here. This is an idea that just came to me while I was on a… "Gravity Falls high" so to speak. So, after I finished my binge-watching of the entire series of Gravity Falls, I couldn't get this out of my head. If you came to this fanfiction because of my Naruto and Steven Universe crossover story "A Second Chance" or my Naruto and Digimon crossover story "Son of Two Dragons", then welcome! If not, then I recommend that you check those other two stories out. Also, if you guys see any mistakes, no matter how small, then feel free to inform me about them. Now, without further ado, I introduce to you the first chapter of… Gravity Falls: Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Chapter 1 - Gravity Falls?

 _[Deep In A Forest]_

 _"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Come here, look! I got another one of the gnomes!" a little boy yelled to his great uncle as he ran down a small grassy hill, capturing the small bearded creature. The child wore a red shirt, with a black hoodie. He had a red and white cap on his head an orange pine tree at the front and small dark blue canvas sneakers. He turned to his "Grunkle" who had another one of the creatures sitting on his shoulders, holding a timer and was walking calmly to his location. A smile appeared on Stan's face._

 _"You managed to find and catch another one? I don't know how you can keep up with those little suckers… Though considering that you have three times more energy than twenty kids on a sugar high combined, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." He said, looking down at his great nephew who was looking up at him with a toothy grin along with the gnome in his arms. The gnome on Stanford's shoulder spoke._

 _"3 minutes and 2 seconds, that's a new record kid!" Jeff had a smirk on his face as he congratulated the young boy, more gnomes were emerging out of the forest and into the clearing. "Nice hide today, Schmebulock!"_

 _"Schmebulock!"_

 _Stan looked at the sky._

 _"Seems you guys have had enough fun, just in time too. It's time to go home kiddo!"_

 _The child pouted, "Already? Can't we stay just a bit-?"_

 _What the boy was about to say was cut short as the sound of loud howls filled the area and massive wolves jumped into the clearing the four were in. Stan cursed under his breath._

 _"Kid, get out of here. Run!" Stan ordered as he equipped golden knuckles, and punched one of the wolves._

 _"But-"_

 _"No buts except yours getting out of here. Go, NOW!"_

 _The young boy hesitated before sprinting into a random direction into the forest, intending to get as far away from the fight as possible. The child ducked under branches and jumped over logs and fallen branches before sliding down a slope, but had hit a stray tree root and lurched forward. He screwed his eyes shut as he rolled the rest of the way down. The feeling of something scratching the side of his cheek made his eyes open in shock, only for them to widen even more when he saw how steep the hill he was rolling down was. He briefly saw yellow blurs to his right as he hurriedly closed his eyes again, but brushed it off as his hair. The 5-year-old felt as if he had been rolling down for hours, when he finally skidded to a stop. After a few minutes, the child opened his blue eyes and slowly stood up, his clothes dirty and slightly ripped in a few places. He also had some leaves and grass in his hair as well as a few cuts and small bruises due to sticks and sharp rocks. The child was awed at the sight he had found and slowly walked forward._

 _In front of him was an old temple made of stone bricks, cracked and mossy with age. It looked similar to a small castle and had two giant fox statues with red eyes that seemed to glow with power as he got closer. The young boy suddenly stopped, his pupils dilated when he heard a strange voice in his mind._

 _ **"I've been waiting for you, kit."**_

* * *

[Unknown Location]

A figure sat straight up in his bed, sweating and heart beating rapidly. He looked at the digital clock on the table beside his bed, it read 6:39 a.m.

"Another one of those eh?" He sighed as his heart slowed to a more normal rate. His voice woke the furry creature sleeping at the end of his bed.

 **"Those have been occurring for a while now, haven't they?"**

"Yeah, they have… The question is, after all these years, why now?" The male wondered.

The animal looked at the clock.

 **"Whatever the reason is, you better get back to sleep. You still have a week of school before summer vacation, not to mention that you'll have work."** he said, before laying his head back down on the bed.

The teen sat quietly for a minute before breathing in deeply.

"Yeah, you're right. Though I do wonder if they told them about the trip yet…" the young man sighed and went back to sleep.

* * *

[Piedmont, California.]

It was a Friday afternoon. Schools rang their bells, signalling that the day was over for the students. The ringing bells also meant another thing. It also meant that, much to the students' joy and the adults' ire, it was the start of summer vacation. To most of the children, summer vacation would be spent playing video games, watching TV and sleeping. To a certain pair of Pines twins, though they didn't know it, it was the start of a great adventure.

* * *

[In The Pines Household.]

"Uuuurgh…" a certain male twin groaned. The boy had messy, brown hair that covered most of his forehead and had two distinct hair flaps on the back of his head, a trait shared by those of the Pines family. He was wearing a red shirt with a dark blue vest on top and light grey shorts along with white socks that each had a single red stripe and black shoes which had white on the bottom. He had a game console in his right hand while slouching into his family's couch, a girl sitting next to him busy playing with their feline pet. He looked at his parents who were on the other side of them, his father sitting on an armchair with his mother standing beside him. "What?! Why do we have to go to-…? Where do we have to go again?"

"Gravity Falls, Oregon." His mother replied.

"Yeah, there. Why weren't Mabel and I told of this sooner? We had a lot of things planned."

"Because," his father interjected, "You two's plans consist of only three things. Eating, playing games and sleeping. Dipper, your mother and I thought that it would be good for you and your sister to spend your summer vacation out of the house for once, plus you haven't seen your Grunkle Stan since he got you guys to help him make counterfeit money."

The young 13-year-old boy, the now identified as Dipper, sighed.

"I guess it can't helped, besides you guys have already bought the tickets for the bus we're going in to get there, haven't you?" He asked knowingly. His parents just had sheepish smiles on their faces and were rubbing the back of their heads. Dipper sighed again, he knew his parents enough to know that their actions meant his assumption was right. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow"

Dipper blinked, _"So soon?"_

His mother, as if she read his mind, said, "You have to leave this early because it takes quite a while to get to Gravity Falls. We also arranged this so that you can spend as much time as you can there."

After sighing again, her son turned to his twin who was happily cuddling their cat. "What about you Mabel? You haven't said anything about this situation…"

The girl in question turned to her twin, not stopping her cuddling of the struggling feline. Mabel had brown hair like her brother, except hers was long and reached her hips. Her hair curled at the ends and she also had the distinctive Pines hair flaps. She had braces on her teeth and was wearing an undershirt and a pink sweater which had a picture of a shooting star with rainbow trails knitted at the front, she was also wearing a purple skirt and black shoes with white socks.

"Though I want to stay here for summer, I also want to go somewhere outside of the house for a change. Besides, like dad said, we haven't seen Grunkle Stan in a while. Plus, didn't you say earlier that we didn't really have much of a choice in the matter anyway, Mr. Sighs-a-Lot?" she replied.

Dipper opened his mouth to retort, but the sound of a car arriving then parking made him pause. Even Mabel stopped choking their cat which had a somewhat relieved look on its face. There were only three people in their family of five that could drive, and two of those were their mother and father, both of which were right in front of them, which meant that it had to be HIM. They glanced at the clock and saw that the time was 6:08 p.m., had they have been talking to their parents for that long? Shaking their thoughts out of their heads, the two dropped the things they were holding and ran to the window beside the door leading into their home as their parents smiled at their actions. Outside, parked on the driveway was a rust-orange Ranger.

 _'It's about time! His jobs must've taken longer than he thought they would today…'_ the twins thought, as the sound of keys opening the locks in their door reached their ears. A figure walked into the house and saw his parents with half-knowing and half-amused smirks on their faces on the other side of the room, which meant… the person flinched and readied himself for a powerful force to strike him. Luckily, he managed stand his ground when he felt the weight of the two thirteen-year-olds, who promptly catapulted themselves at him when he reached their peripheral vision, collide against his body.

"Oof!" was the only sound that came out of his mouth as Dipper and Mabel both gave him bone-crushing hugs, he in return gave them both a massive, playful bear hug at the same time. The twins giggling as he lifted them up, their feet no longer touching the carpet on their floor. Once the figure put them both back down, they looked up at him with large smiles on their faces and saw their 18-year-old older brother giving them both a big goofy grin in return. This, was N Pines. His full name being Naruto "N" Maelstrom Pines. His hair was brown with bright yellow tips and had three whisker-like scars on his cheeks. Unlike his siblings, his hair was spiky instead of curly and was held in a low ponytail, but he still inherited the signature Pines hair flaps; though they weren't very visible as they were hidden under the spikes. His clothing consisted of a blue shirt, an orange short-sleeved hoodie with black trim, dark blue cargo pants, black and red shoes and had a black headband tied around his head, which he wore slanted so that it hid his eye and the area around it from view. He was also wearing a black watch around his left wrist and had a necklace made of green gems tied around his neck along with a mask that covered the bottom half of his face.

The four others in the Pines household found his insistence on wearing the face mask slightly odd, but not as much as his necklace; mostly because of its appearance. It looked like it said "W an-" with the letter "n" only having its left side, as if whatever the necklace was snapped in half. What was odder was when they had asked him about it, he would get a far-away look on his face and turn to a certain direction, always looking towards the same direction whenever they asked, and seemed to be reminiscing about something while unconsciously rubbing his right arm which had a black nine-tailed fox tattoo that covered the whole arm.

"How are my two favourite little munchkins? It's the start of summer vacation today, have they told you about staying with Grunkle Stan?" N asked, his grin still plastered on his face.

"Yep! We're a bit peeved though… I mean, we were expecting to just have a summer filled with pranks, joyrides with you, video games and watching TV. But now we have to go to Gravity Falls and visit Grunkle Stan. It's just a bit sudden, you know. Also, where's K? He's always with you, plus he's so fluffy. Even if he doesn't agree to being called that." Mabel replied with enthusiasm, happy that her older brother and his partner was home.

N, after hearing that they were a little angry about going to their Grunkle's home, gave his pouting parents an I-told-you-so smirk. His parents walked over to him and gave him $10 each.

"I told you telling them last minute would be a bad idea. Plus, after all these years, I thought you guys would've known by now to not bet against me." Naruto chuckled. His parents just kept pouting. N then turned back to his younger siblings, "K is being a lazy bum and is napping at the back of the car. I'm guessing you guys have to pack right after dinner, eh. I'll help you guys with that, just make sure you bring everything you need or want to bring alright?"

The two nodded in response.

* * *

[Time - 9:30 p.m., Twins' Room]

"…so after he paid me for mowing his lawn, me and K left to go to help unload some boxes at that warehouse that set up flyers for volunteers. When we arrived, I heard someone yell. We ran and the first thing we saw was the manager who for some reason was wearing a bunny suit stuck under a pile of boxes with a dog growling and pulling at the suit's right foot." N said while chuckling along with K, retelling the occurrences that had happened earlier in the day with the twins laughing as they folded clothes and placed them in their suitcases.

"What about that Martial Arts school, are they still trying to get you to be a student. Even though you're actually BETTER than most of the "senseis"?" Mabel asked. Naruto sighed.

"Yes, unfortunately they still are." Dipper growled slightly at that.

"Dang, if only you let us, me and Mabel would be able to beat the crud out of those guys. You did teach us how to protect ourselves after all…" Naruto raised an eyebrow as his two younger siblings threw a few shadow punches into the air before he got a mischievous smirk on his face.

"You two think you can beat them up? How can you handle them, if you can't even handle... THIS!" N yelled at the end as he pounced on his two younger siblings, tickling them without mercy as their nine-tailed fox friend just shook his head at their antics. The two couldn't do anything but laugh with tears running out of their eyes, they couldn't make him stop as he was both bigger and stronger than the two of them combined but that fact didn't stop them from trying push their brother away. After a few minutes of laughter the twins couldn't take it anymore, they banged their hands on the floor signalling their surrender. The room was silent as the twins regained their breathing and as their brother grinned at them with Kurama, the blood-red multi-tailed fox that was twice their height who was lying beside their brother. Naruto and Kurama stood up as they looked at the clock.

"Okay, we're going to sleep, you guys should get some rest as well. You've got quite an adventure ahead of you guys." The 18-year-old said to his younger siblings while glancing at the filled suitcases, Dipper could have sworn that the tone his brother used in the final sentence was hinting something. He turned to the two younger Pines and saw that they were looking down, their faces looking a bit sad, "Oi, Oi, what's with the long faces?"

Mabel looked up and replied, "Well, this is our first time going somewhere without you, Mom or Dad around… We're used to spending school breaks with you as well. So this summer vacation is going to be really weird for us without you guys around..."

N sighed and had a small smile on his face, he kneeled down, making the twins look up. He looked at them and made a deal, "Alright, tell you what. I have some business with a couple of my jobs to finish, so I'll be a bit busy for a little while. But, once I'm done with them, I promise I'll drive to Grunkle Stan's with K so that we can stay with you guys at Gravity Falls for the summer as well. How does that sound?"

The twins perked up and their sad expressions disappeared and was replaced with large smiles. "That sounds awesome!" they replied in unison.

N stood up again, to leave for his room.

"Great! Now that that's over with, get some sleep. It's late." he ruffled their heads and left the room with K in tow.

* * *

[Next Morning]

Dipper and Mabel stood outside the entrance of a bus with their bags, facing their parents, brother and fox.

"Be careful, alright you two?" their mother asked.

"We will, promise." Dipper replied.

"Don't do anything that me and Kurama WOULD do whilst we're not there alright?"

"We're not as insane as you two big bro!" Mabel grinned. Their mother raised an eyebrow before turning to her only daughter.

"Mabel, you're older brother told us that he and K are going to be joining you guys in Gravity Falls a little later. Make sure that those two and Dipper don't do anything stupid… Then again, these are your brothers we're talking about." Mrs. Pines smirked along with Mabel.

"Oi! We aren't THAT bad… are we?" the response from the two boys and a growl from K just made the two females' smirks grow.

After saying their goodbye's once more and giving the four family members each a hug, the twins boarded the bus and left for Gravity Falls.

* * *

[That Night]

Naruto sat with Kurama on his bed in the room he had for 6 years. He looked at his bedside table and pressed a hidden button located on the bottom of the very first shelf. A wall silently opened up, showing a collection of items from strange diamond-shaped knives to a suit of combat armour placed on an armour stand. But out of all the items there, the one that had his attention was black, worn-out book. It had an image of a six-fingered hand on the cover, and scrawled on the inside of the hand were the letters: "Tenivgl Snyyf naq Xlhhov". He picked it up and had a forlorn smile on his face as the two stared at the book in his hands.

"Gravity Falls, huh. Of all the places…" He chuckled and looked out of his window, towards the same direction he always looked to whenever his family asked about his necklace.

 _'I wonder... how much has that place changed?'_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, Crazy7634 here! So, first of all, I'd like to thank those who followed, favourited and reviewed this story; you guys are amazing. Things like that is what drives a writer to continue on with their stories. Um, I know that this chapter has taken quite a while, but that was because I intended to send out new chapters for each of my stories at once. But I failed. So I'm just going to release new chapters for both THIS story and my Naruto + Adventure Time crossover, "The Tenth Guardian". For fans of my other stories, new chapters of those two will come out shortly; I am just experiencing some writer's block at the moment. Continuing on, I do ask of you guys to check out my other stories, in case you'd actually like one of them. Now since I've ranted on long enough, I will now introduce, without further ado, the second chapter of… Gravity Falls: Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Gravity Falls.**

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Chapter 2 – Threats and Talks

[Forest Road]

An engine revved and there was nothing but silence inside the truck. The only thing that could be heard as it drove through the woods was the friction its wheels had with the rocky dirt road. The vehicle's driver sighed, his eyes briefly looking at the bags placed on the seat beside him before turning back to the road. He took his left hand off of the wheel to glance at the time on his watch. It read 6:45. The brunette sighed again and ran his raised hand through his spiky hair. His cobalt irises drifted to the side-mirror to his right, staring at the reflection of his multi-tailed companion as the fox let the wind blow against his face.

"How you doing back there, Kurama?" he asked, smirking under his mask at the canine's joyful expression.

 **"Heh, doin' just fine kit. Now, keep your eyes on the road and speed it up a little would ya? I want the air to rush past me faster!"** The eighteen-year-old chuckled and pushed his foot harder against the gas pedal, his eyes trailing the speed meter as it went from 75/mph to 100/mph.

 _'Jeez, good thing we're still in the forest where the speed limit is 100. If he asked me to do this while in Gravity Falls, I probably would have been caught by Blubs for speeding.'_ Naruto chuckled inwardly as he shook his head in amusement. _'I wonder how everyone's doing, it's been ten years since I last went there.'_

A few minutes later, he saw a sight that he hadn't seen in ages at the corner of his eyes… it was the "Welcome to Gravity Falls" sign. He grinned and twisted his head to face forward. His grin grew when he felt his truck's wheels jump up slightly as it switched from running on dirt to concrete. He slowed his speed as he entered the town, looking around and smiling at the familiar faces he saw. Through a window of Greasy's Diner, he saw Lazy Susan stop her cleaning of the tables in favour of freezing in shock at the sight of his familiar head of spiky hair along with the enormous fox sitting on its haunches. The two gave her similar, well-known mischievous grins as they drove past. When they disappeared around the corner, Susan chuckled, shaking her head clear of surprise and went back to tending to her customers, a fond smile now on her face.

"Hahah, nice to know we haven't been forgotten. Then again, considering the amount of pranks we played on everyone here, it would have been more of a surprise if they did. Eh, Kurama?" Naruto said, the fox chuckling in response. He took a deep breath, letting the forest air fill his nostrils. "Ahh, it is good to be back."

 _ **"I know how you feel, kit. I do so love the air in this place, it is much cleaner than the air we have to breathe back in Piedmont."**_ Kurama replied mentally.

Just as Naruto was about to drive into the other side of the forest, where his great-uncle's home was located at, he spotted Manly Dan conversing with Sheriff Blubs who had Stan's old handyman dressed in a police uniform standing beside him. The three felt his eyes on them and turned towards him, their eyes widening and their faces making looks of awe at the young man who used to be the little boy they interacted with years ago. Naruto saw their faces and gave them a cheeky wink along with a nod of recognition. The eldest Pine child stared ahead, his truck steadily growing closer to the worn building dubbed "The Mystery Shack". His method of transportation making a quiet skidding sound as he parked beside a stylized golf cart behind the tourist trap. He slung one of the straps on his backpack over his left shoulder and grabbed the duffel bag before silently sliding off of his seat. He closed the door as silently as he could and nodded at Kurama who had jumped down to his side. He raised an eyebrow when he spotted the large bag of bacon-flavoured dog treats in his maw.

 _"Tch, of course. Out of all the things I told you that you could bring, that was the only thing you needed."_ Naruto said mentally, rolling his eyes.

 _ **"Be lucky that I am currently holding something right now, or I would've already bitten your arm off for your disregard at my source of sustenance… hm, the sun is nearly down, we should head inside."**_

The brown-haired male gave a grunt of agreement. They went over to the gift shop entrance and made their way to the door. Naruto heard Kurama chuckle and he looked back at him as he placed a hand on the door. Seeing the fox just smirk in mirth, he raised an eyebrow at him, not noticing the person on the other side of the door who was about to exit the establishment.

"See ya, guys! Tell Mr. Pines that I'm going home now." A red-headed teen called out behind her, a hand on the doorknob. She twisted the object and pulled the door towards her harshly, unknowingly pulling Naruto towards her direction as well. She was about to step out, when she crashed into something, the force of the collision knocking her into the ground. The flannel-wearing girl propped herself up with an elbow while grabbing her pounding head using her free hand. "What the…"

"Oof!" A grunt escaped Naruto's mouth as he was pushed backwards slightly by the clash. He looked downwards and saw the female who he had accidentally knocked down and knelt down to help her up. "Oops! Sorry about that, I wasn't looking at where I was going. How about I lend you a han-…d?"

His words trailed off and his eyes widened as he took in the young woman's familiar features. She had long brownish-red hair that trailed just past her hips, a black lumberjack hat worn over it. She wore a green flannel top along with dark blue jeans and muddy boots. Freckles dotted her cheeks and her emerald eyes were filled with confusion as she looked at the stranger in front of her. Naruto noticed her stare and shook his head out of his slight daze.

"Sorry about that, I kinda spaced out for a moment there." He chuckled out nervously, scratching the back of his neck with his left hand. He gave her an eye-smile and offered her his right hand. "Here."

The young woman raised an eyebrow and grasped his hand with her own, letting him pull her up to her feet. She noted that she had never seen him before, her other eyebrow arching when she took a closer look at the odd man's appearance. The male, who seemed to be the same age as her, had spiky brown hair with yellow, frosted tips. He was wearing a plain black shirt, dark blue cargo pants and red sneakers. He had a fox tattoo covering his entire right arm and had a black backpack on his shoulder as well as a duffel bag by his feet. While this usually didn't count as mysterious or different, it was his facial features she saw that confused her the most… or rather the lack thereof. The bottom half of his face was completely concealed by a black face mask and there was a black headband wrapped around his forehead. The long piece of cloth seemed to have been slanted slightly to hide his right eye, but with it already being obscured by his hair, it just gave her the impression that he had something to hide.

"Heh, again, I'm really sorry. I was a bit too distracted when I was seeing if my buddy over here was alright." He pointed behind him and she peered past his side to see what he was gesturing to. She adopted a face full of surprise at seeing the large, scarlet-red fox that was sat innocently behind him, a bag of meat in its jaw. Out of all the things she expected to see, this was definitely not on the list. "Yeah, I know, he's a big guy. But once you get to know him, you'll see that he actually acts like a little kit most of the time- OI!"

Naruto yelped when Kurama whacked him in the back of the head using his packet of food and playfully glared at the clearly amused fox. The redhead laughed as she witnessed the interaction between the two, causing them to grin, though she only saw an eye-smile from the brunette.

"Heheh, found that funny, eh? The name's N, N Pines. " He said, holding out his hand for a shake. At seeing her wide-eyed reaction to his introduction, he blinked in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

"O-Oh, nothing. Umm, my name is Wendy Corduroy." She stuttered out, his question breaking her out of her stupor. She gave him a smile and shook his hand, not noticing the duo's eyes narrowing at her name. "So, I'm guessing that you're Mabel and Dipper's older brother?"

"Ah, you know those two?" Naruto chuckled, dropping his hand to his side. Wendy gave him a grin and put her hands in her pockets.

"Yeah. Pretty hard not to know who they are when they're your boss's grandniece and grandnephew… me and my co-worker Soos were usually appointed to be their babysitters since they don't really know the surroundings that much, and the twins couldn't stop talking about you. Heck, I had suspicions as to who you were when I saw that you fit the detailed description that those two gave us multiple times." The trio chuckled. Wendy gave Naruto a mischievous smirk as she spoke. "They also said that you promised to be here in a day or two, but how long has it been… a week? Tsk, tsk. Do you know how much trouble you caused me, Soos and Mr. Pines? They kept asking us whether you were here or not, always coming in and out of their room every couple of minutes or so, never giving us a break."

She shook her head amusedly when she saw the sheepish expression on his face. The female teen then slid past the duo and waved a hand behind her as she walked away. "Well anyway, you two better go in there before they make Mr. Pines become crazier than he already is, especially now that they're starting to go on about monsters and stuff. See ya!"

Naruto and Kurama narrowed their eyes on her form as she disappeared into the woods. The fox dropped the bag in his mouth and turned to the human beside him. **"Hmph, didn't expect her of all people to be here… then again, considering who your great uncle is, we should have. The only thing I'm wondering is what could've gotten into his head that gave him the idea to hire her. If my suspicions are correct… due to her laidback posture, he's either bald or nearly bald at having to deal with her seemingly lack of motivation. Unless he has gained a lot of patience these past couple of years."**

"Hm…" Naruto hummed as thoughts went through his mind. "Yes, but you could see that her "laziness" is merely a façade. I can see the tiredness in her eyes; she's stressed. Though you do prove a point on the subject of her having a job here. Stan knows why she should be kept away from the Shack… from anything to do with me."

Seeing the saddened look in Naruto's eye, the multi-tailed fox sighed and picked up his food with a tail, nudging the human into the building. **"Enough of that. Let's go now, Wendy was right about Stan going nuts if left alone with the twins for too long. We also have to investigate at what she meant by them going on about "monsters" in Gravity Falls."**

Once Naruto's distracted mind registered the last sentence, the sadness was replaced with seriousness and his visible, warm azure iris turned into icy blue. "True. We need to speak to Grunkle Stan about this immediately, they're not meant for this sort of business."

They walked past the register, slowly making their way through the room while their eyes examined the old exhibits that reminded the duo of bittersweet memories. Naruto's eyes lidded themselves halfway, a fond smile was underneath his mask when he ran a hand over the scuba helmet near the cashier area. "I remember this…"

Kurama walked over to the back of the counter and poked his head into one of the compartments, pulling it back with an old dog bowl now clamped in his mouth. He dropped it and grew a grin. **"Hah! He still kept this thing around?"**

Naruto lifted the helmet up slightly and reached his hand inside, taking out the red, white and orange cap he used to wear when he was a kid. It was a custom-made, pine tree baseball cap that Stan had given him on his second trip to Gravity Falls. It wasn't much, the thing was basically one of the caps that the Mystery Shack sold at the Gift Shop but had been altered so that the blue was red while the tree was orange. The item held quite a lot of good memories for the eighteen year old. The two flinched out of their thoughts when the sound of a door banging echoed loudly in the currently near-empty room. Their heads snapped towards the direction where it emanated from and their eyes widened when they saw a familiar-looking, tall, chubby man who wore a Mystery Shack staff t-shirt. A brown cap was on his head and he had a couple of short hairs poking out from his chin. The employee had a similar reaction to theirs. His eyes were nearly out of their sockets, his jaw hanging open. The toolbox that had been in his hand was forgotten and the instruments inside clattered unto the floor as the container slipped from his fingers.

"N-No way… Is that you, N?" the man stuttered out, a face-splitting smile growing on his face when the spiky-haired male before him nodded. He rushed at the young man and lifted him in a bone-crushing bear hug. "Haha! I haven't seen you dudes in AGES!"

Naruto gave him a gentle eye-smile, not fazed at all in the slightest. He patted the other man on the head to get his attention. "Yes, it is nice to see you too, Soos. Though, do you mind putting me down?"

Soos blinked at his request before placing him back on the ground with a sheepish look. "Sorry man, I guess I got too excited."

 **"It is of no consequence. You were merely greeting a friend that you had not seen in quite some time."** Kurama said, Naruto nodding in agreement. Soos's smile grew even wider at hearing the fox's voice. He walked up to the multi-tailed quadruped and scratched him behind the ears.

"You don't know how awesome it is to hear you speak again, buddy." The handyman then snapped his fingers as a thought came to his head. "Oh, that's right! Dipper and Mabel told me that you guys are gonna be here for summer. Come on, I'll take you to them."

Naruto picked up his duffel bag from the floor and followed the enthusiastic man with Kurama in tow. As they got closer to the living room, the sounds of the twins' voices became louder. A grin worked its way onto the eldest Pines child's face when he heard his younger siblings conversing and used his enhanced sense of hearing to listen in.

"…Stan still doesn't believe me. I keep trying to tell him how dangerous this whole place is, but he always says that it's all a bunch of baloney." Dipper grumbled, roughly pushing the buttons on what seemed to be a gaming controller in his annoyance.

"Well, you can't expect someone who's lived in this area his entire life to believe you instantly. I mean, come on! If it weren't for that entire fiasco with the gnomes, I'm pretty sure I'd also be saying that you're crazy." Mabel said, making Kurama and Naruto widen their eyes slightly. Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked to see that it was Soos. The big-boned man used his head to gesture to the children, to which Naruto responded with a vertical finger in front of his lips, telling him to keep quiet. The handyman nodded in understanding, patting the brunette's back before he went back to pick up his tools and continue his job. Seeing that he had gone, Naruto turned his attention back to his little brother and sister.

"Fine, fine. Whatever." Dipper sighed out before looking at his twin from the corner of his eyes suspiciously. "Now, what's this I hear about you going on a date? Need I remind you what happened the last time you went out on one?"

The still hidden brother and fox narrowed their eyes as they began to emit murderous auras. Naruto clenched his fist in irritation while Kurama growled lowly. The thought of some guy taking their baby sister somewhere and possibly breaking her heart angered them to no end. Mabel however, was oblivious to the two's displeasure about the subject and merely rolled her eyes. "Ah, come on Dipper. It ain't a real date, I just agreed to it so that I didn't hurt the little guy's feelings."

"Mabel, you know things don't work that way. He loves you." Dipper gave his sister a deadpan stare, growling out the last part of his sentence slightly. Although he was younger than her, that didn't mean he didn't feel the same way as his older brother in the "female sibling dating a guy" department.

"Riiiight. Calm down Dip, get that protective side under control. Jeez, now I'm kinda happy that big bro and K ain't here yet… you're hard enough to handle as it is, but you three combined is a recipe for disaster for me. Besides, I'm not _that_ lovable." Mabel rolled her eyes again before focusing on the video game at hand. She pushed a couple of buttons on her controller and managed to defeat Dipper. "AWW YEAH!"

The boy grumbled at his loss, placing the controller on the ground. "At least we agree on something…"

The hiding duo took this as their cue and walked towards the TV, standing behind the twins. Naruto chuckled, catching their attention. "Now, now, Dipper. That isn't a nice thing to say to our sister, now is it?"

Dipper and Mabel gasped in shock. They spun around, looking up at their eye-smiling brother and the smirking fox beside him. The twins hopped up to their feet and tackled the new arrivals into the ground.

"Eeeep! When did you guys get here?!" Mabel squealed eagerly, one arm hugging Naruto's stomach while her other was wrapped around Kurama's neck, nearly preventing the fox from breathing.

"Oof… Mabel, you think you could loosen the hug up a bit? I think you're blocking K's windpipes." Mabel blinked at her brother's request, turning her head to look at their family pet.

"Oops… sorry K!" She yelped when she saw that his face had taken a slightly blueish hue due to the lack of oxygen. Kurama merely gave a grunt, standing up after rolling over to his front and shook himself. Naruto smiled at the scene of his sister scratching the purring fox behind the ears as an apology before facing his brother who seemed to be in deep thought.

"So, I see Mabel's taking things alright. How've you been doing, little bro?" He asked.

"Huh?" Dipper blinked confusedly. He had been thinking about the mysterious journal he had found in the woods and the content he had read in it. After a few seconds, his brain finally finished processing what his sibling had just said. "OH! Uh, sorry. I- I've been good. The sudden change in environment kinda bothered us for a bit, but we got over it quickly."

Naruto raised his visible eyebrow at the slightly odd behaviour before shaking it off when he noticed that the young teen's hat was different than he last remembered. "I see that you've changed a part of your wardrobe there. What happened to your brown star cap?"

Dipper flinched at the question, the action causing Naruto to narrow his eyes suspiciously, answering hastily. "Uh- Uhm- Well, you see, I lost it while I was out… doing chores. Yeah. Grunkle Stan sent me out to do something for him in the woods and an animal took it off of my head. He gave me this one to replace it."

The boy chuckled nervously under his masked brother's gaze. The older brunette sighed and gave the anxious boy an eye-smile, rubbing his head gently. "Alright then, if you say so."

Mabel was about to speak up, when she was interrupted by the door bell ringing. Kurama walked over to the door and opened it with a tail, only for the wall to its left to explode into pieces as a white-haired child on a brown horse burst into the home.

"Oi! Who are you? Don't you know that crashing into someone else's home like that is a bit rude?" Naruto asked. His visible eyebrow arched and his arms were crossed while Kurama walked over to his side, the kitsune's stance tense as he growled at the boy. Mabel hurriedly stepped in front of her brother and his partner, her arms waving manically at her side.

"Woah, woah! Time out you two. He's a friend." She said in a calming manner. They looked down at the thirteen-year-old before lifting their heads to stare at the young male again and began to scrutinize him. He seemed to be no older than eleven years of age and was quite chubby. He wore a baby-blue suit with an American flag pin attached to his collar. He wore a black undershirt and his hair was either the same size as or just a bit bigger than his own head, but judging from the scents that they could smell and the shininess of the hair on his head, they could confidently say that the kid used a lot of hairspray. A _lot_ of hairspray. Mabel then stepped to the side turned slightly so that she could see both her newly-arrived family members and the one who she presumed had come here to take her out on their date. "Gideon, this is my big bro, N Pines. The fox beside him is K, he's like, our family's animal friend. N, K, this is Gideon Gleeful. He's a friend that I met a few days ago."

"Howdy, it's nice to meet more family members of Mabel's." Gideon smiled, holding his hand out for a shake. Naruto stood his ground and only narrowed his eyes, giving him a swift nod in acknowledgement while Kurama gave him a short, but very vicious, snarl. The boy chuckled nervously at that and slowly drew his hand back. Dipper watched the scene with an amused smirk as Mabel facepalmed. Naruto kept his stony expression and ignored the sharp glare his sister sent him.

 _"You see it too, right?"_ He asked the canine through a mental link.

 _ **"Yes. That teal gem he wears is not just any other common item. He wields a powerful weapon that has only been documented in one specific book… or should I say journal? Not only that, I can sense the darkness within him, albeit small. Regardless, we must keep on our toes when around him. We both know that, if not dealt with properly, something small can very easily make itself into something big. This case is especially dangerous with the power he currently holds around his neck and the tome of knowledge he no doubt holds."**_ The fox mumbled, his eyes not leaving the boy's form.

 _"Hn."_ Naruto grunted in response before cutting the link off.

"Ughhh." Mabel groaned before turning to the nervous Gideon. "Sorry about that. They don't really trust the friends I've newly made all that easily. Well, he trusts the friends I make who are girls, but guys… not so much"

The famous child merely gave a small, uneasy laugh. "It's all good. Now how about we head on out to our date?"

Mabel flinched and Dipper had to cover his mouth with both his hands in order to not guffaw out loud at the mistake Gideon had just made. The masked teen and the fox immediately snapped their heads to Mabel, both with an incredulous look on their faces. Mabel winced when she saw that their expressions gave her one silent command. Explain.

She crossed her arms and pouted at the floor. "Yeah, he is. Now, don't give me those looks you two! Take it easy, will yah? You, K, Dipper and Dad always get like this. I mean, come on! It's just one date. Can you let me go, just this once?"

Naruto stared at her for a few silent minutes, his mind going back to what she had said to Dipper earlier in regards to this date before sighing. He rubbed his temples to soothe the small migraine he now had. He turned to Gideon and gave him a sharp look. "Bring her back at 8:30. You comply with this one rule, and we won't have any qualms. If you don't, me and K will personally make you see hell, kid or not. We don't make exceptions for things as serious as this."

"THANK YOU!" Mabel grinned up at her brother, giving him and Kurama a hug. She quickly clambered up the horse and tapped the boy on his shoulder. "Let's go, Gideon!"

"Okay!" He tugged on the mount's reins, making it back out of the hole he had created in his entrance. Pulling on the rope, he made it face towards their destination before turning back to look at Naruto. "I hope you have a good night, sir."

"Kid, since our father ain't here, I'm gonna have to fill in his spot as well as do my job as her older brother. I'm barely keeping myself from punching you off of that horse and drop kicking you back to town. Don't test my patience." Gideon gave a nervous chuckle at this and urged his steed to get away from the Pines residence as fast as possible. But before he could get out of the clearing, he heard Naruto's voice call out to him one more time. "If she is late by only one millisecond, you can count on my word when I say that I will be after your soul! If that don't scare you, then here's one more thing: other than me, there are three others in this home related to her, and I am sure that they will no doubt enjoy aiding me in ripping you a new one!"

Naruto and Kurama huffed in annoyance as they stared at where in the forest the horse had gone through, only for their ears to twitch when the sound of Dipper's laughter reach them. They turned to his direction and smirked when they saw him on the ground, clutching his stomach as the sounds of amusement left his mouth. After a few minutes, the young teen managed to get himself under control and slowly stood up.

"Ah, man. That was _very_ amusing." Dipper chuckled out, wiping a tear from his eye. "The way you made him squirm was hilarious, and did you see that look on his face? You gotta teach me how to do that!"

"Soon kiddo. For now, just ignore the hole. I'll fix it tomorrow."

"Will do. Hm… since Mabel is gone, now I don't have another player for the video game. You wanna play, N?" The short boy asked his brother, looking up at him hopefully.

"Ah, maybe later li'l bro. Since I just got here, I have a lot of stuff to deal with first." He smiled apologetically. But seeing the saddened look on his brother's face, he sighed and knelt down, placing a hand on the boy's head. "Okay, tell you what, I'll deal with that stuff tomorrow. But the talk that I need to have with our great uncle can't be held off. After our chat, I'll play spend the night with you, yeah?"

Dipper perked up at this and smiled broadly "That sounds awesome! Oh, and since you're wanting to talk to Stan, I think he's still in his room. He always warns us to keep away from that place though, so I wouldn't be surprised if he just slams the door closed in your face if I were you."

Naruto chuckled. "Ah, don't worry about that buddy. Just wait here, this probably won't take all that long."

Seeing him nod, the spiky-haired teen and the multi-tailed fox walked towards the room. The sight of a few of the photos on the walls making them smirk. Soon enough, they were stood in front of the door that lead to Stan's bedroom. Naruto took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door, the sound of his knuckles hitting wood echoing.

"Yeah, I'm coming." The two heard a loud yawn and the sounds of heavy footsteps making their way towards the door before the clicks of deadbolt locks being unlocked replaced them. "What is it-"

Stanley Pines stopped mid-sentence at the sight of his eldest great-nephew, his jaw hanging in place. Kurama smirked while Naruto gave him an eye-smile.

"Hello to you too, Uncle. But I am afraid that greetings will have to wait." He said, his unobscured azure eye sending the older male a steely gaze. "It has come to our attention than three children have somehow managed to acquire certain pieces of knowledge that is _supposed_ to be forbidden to them."

 **"Yes… we need to talk."**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yo! Crazy7634 here! Okay, first off, I'm sorry for the delay. Again, writer's block really damages work ethic. Secondly, thanks to all of you who followed, favourited and reviewed this story. Especially those who had spoken to me via PMs about problems and ideas. Thirdly, for those who actually read these author's notes, there will be cryptograms at the end of this story's chapters starting from now. If you read the chapter carefully, you will find out the cipher you'll need to use in order to decode the letters and/or numbers. PLUS, thank you IMMENSELY to those who participated in the poll. To those who may be curious, it was about whether should have chakra or not, and since option two won… Naruto will use chakra! That's enough of my ramblings. If you guys have an idea or you spot some sort of mistake, then feel free to tell me. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the third chapter of… Gravity Falls: Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Chapter 3 – Is Thirteen Really An Unlucky Number?

 _'Ah, dang it…'_ Stan sighed, stepping over to the side. "Alright. Come on in."

Naruto and Kurama walked into the room, the older Pines male closing the door with a slam before bolting it shut once again. The masked teen dropped his bags on the floor before beginning to pace back and forth in the middle of the room, Kurama sitting on his haunches as he watched him. He let out a frustrated breath and spun around to face his great uncle. The fox saw the anger bubbling in his partner and silently touched a nail beside the door with a claw, a few hidden inscriptions glowing for a few seconds.

"What. Happened." The half-blonde growled out. The old man looked down at the floor, pulling his hat off and placing it on a table nearby. He rubbed his head and sighed again.

"Hey, I don't know either, okay? I had expected this summer to just have one routine boring being repeated over and over, but one day that vest-wearing kid just suddenly started to ramble on about strange occurrences. I played it off and sent him out to do some chores in the woods, you know, hanging signs and all that to attract more tourists. I was hoping that that would get the thoughts out of his head. He finished around about an hour later. I went to check up on him and walked in on the boy reading Journal 3…" Stan's voice trailed off, his eyes never leaving the wooden planks under his feet.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "So let me get this straight. You knew full well about what exactly hides in those woods, and the book it con- no, it USED to contain. Yet, despite these facts, you made him hang up signs in there, with Dipper being clueless about the dangers located in every corner?!"

His uncle's head snapped up, rage now in his eyes. "LOOK! You're right, I did let him go into the forest despite the dangers. But how was I supposed to know that he would find that stupid book my brother made?! I only knew that it was located inside one of the trees, but I didn't even know a general location! YOU NEVER TOLD ME."

The brunette matched the man's glare with one of his own. "And for good reason-!"

"What? What exactly is this "good reason" that you're talking about, huh?! You know why I'm doing this; why having all three journals is important." A tear rolled down Stan's furious face. "Why I'm trying so hard just to re-activate that dumb PORTAL!"

The 18-year-old turned away, a frown on his face. "Of course I do… you told me years ago."

A snarl formed on the grey-haired businessman's face. "Then why the hell are you trying so hard to stop me?!"

Naruto didn't know what to say.

"I…"

Stanley began to yell louder.

"WHY?!"

The spiky-haired teen clenched his fists.

"Well-"

The conman's patience ran out.

"JUST TELL ME!"

The masked teen's fury-filled cerulean eye immediately slid upwards and bore into Stan's brown ones, his fist striking the wall nearby, causing spider-web cracks to appear.

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO WATCH YOU KILL YOURSELF, YOU OLD FOOL!"

Stan froze, Naruto shutting his eyes closed. "What?"

"*sigh* Listen. That death machine hasn't been used in THREE decades. You'd need a heck of a lot of metal to restore it to good condition, millions of bolts of electricity just to jump-start the thing, as well as RADIOACTIVE LIQUID for fuel! I know that you want to get Great-Uncle Ford back, but you're not as young as you once were. Your body is frailer than you'd like to confess. Besides, who knows what could happen if you open that thing up again!" Stan was silent while the eldest Pines sibling panted after his rant. He took a deep breath and glanced up at his uncle. "But… while I may not be fully on board with this crazy idea of yours, I'm not against it either. I am not going to help you fix that contraption, nor am I going to sabotage it. I had known that Dipper and Mabel would take a road trip to this whack-job town, and I had only agreed with Mum and Dad to let them go because I thought that the anonymity of the journals' whereabouts would keep them safe from this monster business. I just want to protect my family. It's the only reason that I kept the locations of the other two journals away from you. Nothing more, nothing less."

The suited male didn't say anything for a few moments, but after a while, a smile graced his face and his voice rung out. "Heh. Always protect your family, huh?"

A fond look shone in Naruto's eye. "Of course. You drilled that lesson into my head."

 **"*AHEM* Now that you two are done, we have other important things to discuss…"** the fox, who had chosen to be silent throughout the whole ordeal, spoke up. **"Trying to deny the existence of the oddities those two see while in Gravity Falls will be the most you can do… publicly. While I would love to suggest that you can take that book from Dipper discretely, the kid will just end up looking for it. Considering his luck in finding hidden things, I do not want that to happen as he might find out about the underground area."**

"*sigh* You're right. My little brother's too smart and curious of a kid to just let something like this go." The teen adopted a thinking pose. "Well, it _has_ been a while since we last saw the guys in the wilderness. Me and Kurama will just have to give them all a visit and tell them to watch out for those troublesome two. The less weirdness they see, the lesser the proof they have of everything in the journal existing."

Stanley flinched and nervously chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Uh… actually, it's going to be harder to do that than you think. They've already made contact with a few of them."

Naruto's eye twitched before he plopped down on the ground, his hand impacting against his head in a facepalm. "Which ones?"

"The gnomes. They fought against them for a reason I don't know. Though, judging from our past interactions with them, I'm pretty sure they wanted Mabel to be their Queen or something."

The brown-haired teen sighed. "Of course… I'll talk to Jeff about that later. The other ones?"

"They nearly made contact with your old buddy Gobble. I overheard them talking over some sort of "Weird Picture Contest" in the newspaper and phoned McGucket. I had him power up that Gobblewonker robot copy you and him had made years ago and chase the kids around when they went off with Soos- now before you say anything…" Grunkle Stan cut Naruto off before he could speak, the 18-year-old's mouth half-open. "…I told Fiddleford to do this so that they'll really believe that the thing is real. Then, after a few chases and "close calls", he'll allow them to stop him and find out that the thing was just a robot. You know, to make it seem as if Gobble doesn't exist and was just a made-up story. I had been hoping that they'd be discouraged to look for more creatures from my brother's book, but unfortunately, it didn't work. Now here's something that will catch your attention. While we were heading back to shore, she gave us a bit of a nudge from underwater. She probably thought that they were you from their scents. But if this is the reaction they'll get from Gobble, what about the other creatures of the forest?"

The young man raised his visible eyebrow at that. "I'll definitely go out for a swim with her later, she's probably missed us quite a lot. After that, as I said earlier, we'll pay the others a visit so that we can clear up any confusions. Anyone else?"

"Soos found the room we locked the cursed wax figures in. You know, the one we hid behind tons of wallpaper ten years ago? The kids battled them while I was out. When they tried to tell me about it, I made it seem as if I just brushed them off and just chalked it off as their imaginations acting up. They didn't seem to care this time though. I'm starting to worry they're going to stop trying to "convince" me that these odd things are real. If they do, then I don't know how to figure out what they've been up to."

"I see… we'll have to think up of something that will help us keep an eye on them, then." Naruto hummed in thought before a question appeared in his mind. "Well, we can work on that later. But right now, I need to ask you something. What do you know of this… Gideon Gleeful?"

The old man's mood quickly turned sour at the mention of the name. "Ugh, Gideon. That brat's been on my case for ages. He's a bigger thorn in my side that his father, Bud Gleeful himself. Kid has this whole cutie act going on and has the townsfolk wrapped around his finger. The fact that you actually asked about someone in person, there's something going on with him, isn't there?"

 **"Yes. He wears a weapon found only in one object. Journal 2."**

His bespectacled eyes widened to epic proportions. "Journal 2? That little urchin's had that thing all this time?!"

"It seems so… we'll have to keep an eye on him. Especially since he's taken Mabel out on a date."

"HE WHAT?!" Naruto winced at Stan's loud voice, the man walking over to the door. "Why that little-… I oughta show that punk a thing or two about messing with my great-"

 **"Stanley, stop."** The human froze, his hand on the doorknob. **"We** _ **let**_ **him take Mabel for a date. The girl's been asking to go out on one many times, but we thought we'd let her go, just this once. Yes, the thought of it is still making our blood boil, but we gotta let her have some time to be all girly; although we should really be doing the opposite now that she'll be going even crazier for those of the opposite gender due to puberty. Doesn't mean we can't mess with those who wrong her though."**

The great uncle pulled his hand away from the handle and crossed his arms, huffing grumpily. Seconds of silence passed and he suddenly began to blink owlishly. "Hang on. We've been yelling quite a lot. Don't you think that the kid outside would've heard something?"

Kurama shook his head and used a tail to gesture to the nail he had pressed earlier. **"No need for worries. I charged the privacy seal we set up years ago. He didn't hear a single thing."**

Naruto stood up, folding his body backwards as his spine let out multiple pops. "We better get out. I promised a younger sibling of mine that I'd spend the night with him, so we'll have to stay overnight. Though, Grunkle Stan, we know that there aren't many bedrooms here. In fact, I'm pretty sure the twins have taken the attic, right?"

Seeing the nod of confirmation, the azure-eyed male continued on.

"Then I guess we'll stay at the old tree house we built." Naruto smiled melancholically. "I still remember the day we built that. With the help from the gnomes, we ended up making quite a large base camp, huh?"

"Heh, yeah. Since you're staying there, you're going to need these to get in." Stan pulled out a loose floorboard and picked up a shiny object from the hidden cubbyhole. It was a set of keys. He smirked at the glinting metal before chucking it at his oldest great-nephew. The strangely-dressed enigma let out a squawk of surprise as he hastily juggled the key from hand to hand when it was about to fall. "Stay safe when you're out there, yeah?"

Naruto merely gave him a smirk. "Hey, it's me. When have I never played it safe?"

 **"You mean not counting every single situation you've ever been in? Never."**

The snickering fox was ignored, his partner's smirk not leaving his face. "Besides, if anyone in our family has to make sure everything is safe, it's you. You're the one who has to deal with children riding on horses crashing through your wall. Which, by the way, I'll fix tomorrow before I move into the treehouse."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks brat. Just go out there and play with the boy already."

* * *

[With Dipper]

"Hm, they sure have been in there for quite a while now. I wonder what they're talking about..." Dipper thought to himself out loud, pausing his fight against the console-controlled character on the TV screen. He turned and stared at the door, thinking whether or not he should go and try to listen in before shaking his head out of his thoughts. He restarted the game and began to push the buttons on his controller. "Ah, who am I kidding? If it's really important, they'd probably tell me and Mabel."

The sound of heavy footsteps making their way towards his direction caught his attention. He glanced briefly away from the screen and saw a flash of Naruto and Kurama making their way over to him.

"Hey, buddy. I'm back. As promised." Naruto sat down on the floor, letting out a groan when his spine ached slightly. He blinked when he spotted the familiar rectangular device hooked up to the TV along with the familiar fedora-wearing platypus fighting what seemed to be a triangle-headed pharmacist. **(A/N: Cookies to those who know where these two come from.)** Both were, oddly enough, wearing gladiator armour; which looked odd for the human, as his armour was worn over a white coat. "Good old Caesar's Warriors. Nice choice."

"You know this game?" The vest-wearing boy asked, turning away from the screen. Before Naruto could respond, an 8-bit sound played while the platypus lay flat on the concrete, swirls representing his eyes and the words "GAME OVER" appeared in bold text. The boy had lost the fight. Dipper's eye twitched in irritation and he barely restrained his urge to throw the controller through the window in his current fit of rage. "Agh, dang it! This game is IMPOSSIBLE!"

Naruto smirked and took the remote from his brother's hands, selecting the "Try Again" option. Once the round started, Dipper could only gape in awe as Naruto completely obliterated the odd pharmacist man. His eyes slid to controller, his chocolate-coloured pupils widening at the sight of his quick, precise, yet nonchalant pushing of buttons. Naruto raised his eyebrow at his expression and chuckled. "Hey, don't sweat it kiddo. You've only had a couple of hours experience in this game, while I had been playing on this thing since age four through eight. To be honest, I'm surprised that my old gaming console is still functioning."

Dipper paused and gave Naruto a confused look. "Wait, what do you mean by "my old gaming console"? This used to be yours?"

His brother let out a bark of laughter. "Well, yeah. Why else would a big grump like our Grunkle get one in the first place? Heh. I spent my summer here for four years in-a-row. Me and Grunkle Stan would always muck around and would mess with the other townsfolk. In fact, I found K during a summer I spent here. The trips to this place were always the highlight of my years. Coming back here after so long, it's quite a nostalgic experience for me, actually."

Dipper sat in silence, lost in thought as he contemplated on this new piece of information about his enigmatic sibling. _'Huh… I didn't know that he used to stay here. Also, didn't Mom and Dad say that he had gotten that claw scar he always hides when he was five? Does that mean he's seen some of the strange stuff as well? If he did, he may have forgotten already. He_ did _say "age four through eight", meaning the last time he came here was… wait a minute.'_

The young sleuth perked up and faced his brother.

"But N, you said earlier that you stopped playing on this thing when you were eight. Since you're eighteen now, that would make it ten years since you've last been here."

"Yep. Why you asking?"

"Well… it's just that… from the way you spoke about Gravity Falls, it seemed that you really enjoyed being here. How come you stopped visiting?" Naruto unconsciously tensed, a detail that his little brother did not miss. He also did not fail to notice the quick flash of guilt that had appeared in the older boy's eye. Dipper looked at him even closer, half curious and half suspicious at the same time. "Is something wrong?"

Naruto shook his head to clear it and gave Dipper the most convincing eye-smile he could manage at the moment. "Ah, nothing. Everything's fine. The reason I stopped coming back is because one, our parents thought that this place was a bit too dangerous for me to stay in back then, since apparently I have a knack for getting into trouble."

The two heard Kurama snort in amusement. They turned to the fox and saw that he had an eyebrow raised with a look that clearly said "that's an understatement", the odd sight making Dipper snicker while Naruto's eye twitched.

"Ignoring that know-it-all fox, let's continue." At hearing his voice, Dipper looked back to his brother, not noticing that he had thrown a harmless blue flame in the fox's face when his attention was taken off of him. "Two, there was a situation years ago that prevented me from coming back, something about people noticing that either they and a couple of others were missing parts of their memory, though we just threw it off as superstition. Then last but not least, reason number three was because two certain siblings of mine began to hound our parents about coming here to Gravity Falls, and because of the things that had happened during my stays here, Mum and Dad refused. With those three things, I just chose to stop coming here altogether. But you are right though, I did enjoy the times that I spent here."

"Oh…" The younger teen was silent, staring at his feet as he thought. He was feeling a bit guilty now. From the looks of things, he and Mabel were one of the major reasons why he couldn't come back. Although N was a walking trouble-magnet, it just seemed to pale in comparison to the other two reasons, more so because their parents had only called him "trouble-magnet" as a joke. Though, other than his and his sister's involvement in their brother's cancellation of trips to Gravity Falls, the second reason caught his eye. Mysterious memory lapses? What had happened ten years ago that could have caused that? "Uh, big bro? I know that you guys just think that the memory stuff is just some sort of lie or something, but do you think you can tell me of any rumours you can remember hearing about it from ten years ago?"

 _ **"Tch. Great job, Naruto. Now the kid's curious!"**_

" _*sigh* In hindsight, I should not have said anything but the first and third reasons."_

 _ **"Hn."**_

Naruto adopted a fake thinking pose, putting a finger to his chin, humming. "Ah, sorry kiddo. I myself can't really remember what had happened all those years ago. To be honest, the only thing I can remember is the missing memory thing."

"Alright, thanks." Although calm silence then filled the area, the minds of those in the room were anything but calm as many thoughts flew in their heads.

* * *

[Timeskip, A Few Hours Later]

Mabel trudged up to the doorstep of her uncle's tourist trap, a sad look on her face while a live lobster was in her hands. She peered in through the window and checked the time. It was 8:20 p.m. It seems that as thrilled as Gideon was at being able to take her out, he had taken her brother's warning quite seriously. She knocked on the door quietly, her arms currently feeling as if concrete had encased them. Light shone out of the house, Mabel wincing when her vision was filled with pure, shining white. She smiled slightly at the sight of K, giving him a pat on the nose as she walked over to her great uncle's fish tank, dropping the lobster inside. Her older brother was sat on the floor by their Grunkle's chair, the TV remote in hand while her younger twin was laid on his back on the seat. N stopped his channel surfing and Dipper paused his reading when they heard their sister sigh loudly. They shared a worried look, Dipper placing his book down, studying his sister's behaviour closely.

"So… uh… how did it go?" He asked tentatively. The girl didn't turn to face her brothers, opting instead to stare at the snapping lobster in the water tank. She let out a forlorn sigh and replied as she pressed a finger against the tank's glass.

"I… don't know." She said, her voice clearly displaying her confusion on the matter. "But we have a pet lobster now."

Naruto's eye narrowed slightly, a suspicion appearing in his mind. "At least this will be the last time you'll have to deal with that Gideon guy, right? Only one date; that was the deal. It's all over… right, Mabel?"

"AAAGH! I DON'T KNOW!" She screamed, her arms flashing to her head, pulling at her brown hair. "He asked me out again after this one, and I couldn't say no. There were just so many people watching… I didn't know _how_ to say no."

"Like this, Mabel: No." the youngest sibling twisted his body and sat up properly on the armchair, his thin arms crossed over his chest. "That is unless… please tell me you don't actually like that guy, do you?"

Mabel moaned in irritation when she saw Dipper give her an accusing stare before groaning again when she noticed N and K doing the same thing.

"Okay, one, it's not that easy! Two, yes, I do like Gideon. But before you jump to conclusions, I don't like him in _that_ way. As a close friend or sister? Yes. Romantically? No." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I only accepted his offer because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Right now, I'm only focusing on how to get the relationship between us back to how it was; as friends."

The trio's gazes softened. They knew she was telling the truth. Naruto stood up and walked over to Mabel, ruffling her hair with a hand. "Hey, don't sweat it kiddo. You're a Pines. I know you'll be able to do it."

The only female Pines sibling smiled and hugged her older brother. "Yeah… thanks big bro."

"Heh, no problem." He then lifted his head up and stared at the door. "Now that you're back, I'm just wondering where Grunkle Stan went off to…"

* * *

[The Next Night, At The Mystery Shack]

Naruto sighed and wiped his brow of sweat, taking a step back to marvel at his finished work, twirling the hammer in his hand. The sun had set and the moon was high up in the black sky now. His eyes moved to the left, a smirk forming under his mask at the sight of his little brother smiling. They had spent the entire day fixing up the mess Gideon had created last night, and after multiple trips from the Shack to the town and back again for supplies, they finally finished. The young boy had gotten a splinter or two, as well as some gashes here and there, but those were taken care of easily. They both rolled their necks, letting out hisses of pain. Clanking sounds reached Naruto's ears and he raised an eyebrow when he saw Dipper placing all the tools back into the toolbox they had borrowed from Soos. Kurama shook himself as he awoke from his nap and blinked when he saw the fixed wall. His eyes trailed downwards and spotted an odd plank.

 _ **"Hey kit, the plank second from the right is missing a nail in the bottom."**_

 _"Damn it."_

"Hey Dip, pass me a nail, would ya?" Naruto asked, his eyes not leaving the problematic plank. He saw movement to his right and held out a hand, nodding when he felt a nail drop onto it. He lined it up to the dot he had drawn on the plank earlier and began to hammer the metal object in. "Thanks li'l bro. So, how do you think Mabel is holding up right about now?"

"Well I-" Dipper was cut off when his twin raced past them and barged into the living room, slamming the door shut. The three turned to each other confusedly before following the girl into the house, Dipper taking the toolbox with him. They were greeted with the sight of Mabel pacing in a panicked manner.

"…he's so nice- but I have to end this. I don't want to break his heart though!" She let out an angry shout, gripping her hair tightly. "How am I supposed to get out of this?!"

Naruto took a cautious step towards his sister. "Uh, sis, you alright?"

Mabel whirled around to face him, a crazed look in her eye. "NO!"

Her brothers and pet flinched, the elder one holding an arm out to stop her twin from going forwards. Not taking his eyes off of her, he muttered lowly to the birth-marked boy. "No sudden movements. She is in a Pines rage mode right now, we need to be careful."

The two sides stared at one another, the boys frozen in place while the lone girl glared at them, her eye twitching occasionally in what seemed to be insanity. The stare-down lasted for a few minutes before Mabel finally sighed and calmed herself, the three males silently letting out breaths of relief.

"I-I'm sorry for snapping at you, guys. It's just that my plan is going downhill!" She moaned, sitting down on the floor, staring at the ground. "I don't know what happened. First, we were just chatting, staying safely in the friend zone. Then, all of a sudden, he just pulls me in a pit of quicksand located in the ROMANCE zone!"

Mabel pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs, burying her face into her thighs as she let out a wail of confusion and irritation. The spiky-haired Pines sighed and placed a hand on his distraught sister's head. "Hey, it's alright. Think of it this way, at least you won't have to marry the idiot, eh?"

Mabel hesitantly raised her head, the expression on her face slowly becoming happy. "Yeah… Yeah! Heh, I mean, why would I even marry that guy? That's completely bonkers-"

At this moment, Stan barged into the room wearing a shirt that had the words "Team Gideon" printed on it. He stood up straight, the look on his face practically saying that "I did something good". Naruto and Kurama turned to the man suspiciously.

Dipper hopped down from the armchair and pointed at the man's torso. "Grunkle Stan, where have you been? And what's with the shirt?"

The man ignored him, his attention focusing on Mabel. "Hah-ha! Good news, kiddo. You're going to have to marry Gideon!"

The other four in the room gave him incredulous looks.

"WHAT?!" the long-haired girl yelled out.

"What the heck did you do, Stan?!" her twin asked, glaring at their great-uncle.

"Bad timing… VERY bad timing…" Naruto said under his breath, facepalming with Kurama following his example using a tail. Stan raised an eyebrow at their reactions and pulled his hands out in front of him in a defensive manner.

"Hey, hey. Hear me out, yeah? I've got this whole thing figured out with Bud Gleeful. Not only did I get this awesome shirt…" Stan pulled on the hem of his shirt, stretching it out slightly for emphasis. He smirked when he didn't see a sphere for a stomach, happy that he had been doing the same exercises he used to do with his oldest great-nephew for the past ten years. "…but I also got a good deal out of it all. If everything goes as we planned, then there's a butt-load of cash just waiting for collection…"

The fox and his partner shook their heads in exasperation while Mabel ran up the stairs leading to the attic, screaming loudly as she did so. Naruto massaged his rubbed his eyelids and pointed to the stairs. "Dipper, go check on Mabel. I'm going to have a chat with our uncle."

"Got it." Dipper nodded before briskly sprinting up the stairs. When he heard Dipper open the door to the twins' room, Naruto opened his eyes and stared at the sheepish Stan.

"So this is why you were gone for random periods of time, huh?" The old man could only scratch the back of his head, attempting to make an "innocent" look on his face. "Do you realize just how much you messed up my little sister?"

"Uh… yes?"

A few tick marks appeared on Naruto's head. "You know, you're going to have to make it up to her because of this whole stunt you just pulled."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me loud and clear."

"Why do I have to-" Grunkle Stan paused mid-sentence when he heard Dipper's footsteps as he walked into the room. "Well, that was quick, brat. How's the girl doing?"

Dipper sighed. "Unfortunately, she's in "Sweater Town" at the moment. She's calmed down somewhat, but that's only after I promised that I'd talk to Gideon for her about this whole ordeal later."

The azure-eyed young man turned back to Grunkle Stan. "You actually caused her to go to Sweater Town. You're definitely going to have to make it up to her."

* * *

[The Next Day, Deep In the Forest]

[With Naruto and Kurama]

The crimson kitsune's long ears twitched as they listened in for any signs of wild animals while his human counterpart slashed through the vines and foliage that blocked their path using the blade-shaped, blue energy surrounding his hand. Kurama was glad that the sword glowed in the dark as the sun had already set a while ago. He had no qualms with darkness, but he would rather not slam into every low-hanging branch due to the decreased quality of his eye-sight. The path seemed to not have been used in a long while, as they had expected. So far, all the fox had been hearing was the crunching of leaves and twigs at every step they took, the swooshing of the blade, the chirping of insects, as well as the jingling of the keys Naruto held in his free hand.

 **"How long until we're there, again?"** He asked tiredly. Since the masked male was busy cutting down obstructions, the quadruped had been given the task of carrying his luggage for him. The duo had been walking for around about an hour now, and the extra weight on his back was beginning to get to him. Naruto sighed exasperatedly.

"Just wait, you grouchy canine. The path has not been tended to, this situation was expected to happen in time. Don't worry, since we're cutting these annoyances now, later trips will be much quicker than this." He twisted his head to the side and glanced at the fox behind him. "So stop being a cry baby."

The scarlet animal scoffed. **"Tch. You would be complaining too if YOU had to carry your own heavy gear instead of dumping it all on me."**

"I doubt it- wait." Naruto came to a sudden halt, and began to sniff the air. "Do you smell that?"

Kurama paused a well and titled his head in curiosity before doing the same thing. His eyes widened when a familiar scent reached his nose and a smile spread across both his and Naruto's face. **"Yes… I do."**

Naruto looked up into the sky and seemed to ask a question to no one in particular. "…You can come out, we know you two are there."

The bushes rustled and two shadowy figures walked out, their features still obscured by the darkness as they were not close enough to be affected by the Naruto's glowing hand. Their smiles grew wider when a familiar voice spoke up. "So, the others were telling the truth. You two really are back."

The tattooed male let out a chuckle. "Yes, we are. How've you been… Jeff, Shmebulock?"

Said little men walked forward, their appearances now fully visible in the light. Both of the short creatures wore a light blue, long-sleeved shirt with dark blue pants along with dark brown boots and had small, red, pointed hats atop their heads. But while Jeff had a clean brown beard, Shmebulock had an uncontrolled and bushy, dark-grey beard as well as a moustache that covered his mouth. His nose was also quite crooked when compared to Jeff's and he had two teeth protruding from his lips.

"We and the others have been doing fine, kid. The question is, are YOU alright? Considering what caused you to leave in the first place…" Jeff trailed off at the end, wincing when the memory popped up in his mind.

"…" Naruto stayed silent for a while before letting out a breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. So, how's everyone in Gravity Falls? Safer than when I stayed, I hope?"

"Shmebulock, Shmebulock!" the strange gnome nodded. The teen gave him a nod in return, the gnome's odd dialect translating to: "Yeah, they're fine."

"That's good to hear…" He replied, sending a guilty gaze to the ground. Jeff and the others saw this, the younger-looking gnome climbing up to the boy's shoulder.

"Hey, don't sweat it kid. Those guys have been doing their business for years now, they started a _long_ while before you came around. Back then, you were just a kid. At that time, they were stronger and just a bit smarter. No need to get all down-in-the dumps about what happened, like, a decade ago. Just learn from what happened and use it to your advantage."

"Yeah, I know that. But while they have already been fiddling with the minds of the townsfolk for years before my arrival, I'm pretty sure they weren't as aggressive during their usual erasing of memories before I came. Now usually there is a chance that peoples' memories will come back if something is used as a catalyst to jump-start the suppressed memory, such as if McGucket were to watch the memories he deleted, he would most likely regain his sanity… but in her case, I'm not so sure."

Jeff sighed and patted the saddened Pine on the shoulder. "Kid, I-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

A loud crash and twin yells of terror from above caused them to flinch. Naruto grabbed Jeff and Shmebulock as he and Kurama hopped up into the trees. The duo's breaths got caught in their throats when they saw that Dipper and the Gideon child were the ones falling and were about hit the ground. Just as they were going to jump out and catch them, they dropping children glowed blue and screeched into a halt JUST before they became human pancakes. They were twisted into an upright position and Mabel slowly floated down, the amulet the white-haired boy had been wearing earlier clutched in her hand.

She glared at the shorter child. "Listen, Gideon. I will never, EVER, date you. Just leave me and my family alone."

Dipper let out an "oof!" as he was dropped onto the ground before quickly standing back up and pointing a triumphant finger at Gideon. "YEAH!"

Mabel then promptly dropped the necklace she had been holding and stomped on it, effectively breaking the powerful gem. Gideon gasped in shock.

"MY POWERS!" The boy ran and kneeled down by the broken shards. He was silent for a few moments before he hopped onto his feet and gave the twins a hate-filled look. He began to walk backwards, his eyes not leaving the siblings. "This isn't over. This is NOT the last time you'll see of wittle… ol'… me!"

Mabel and Dipper sighed when he left their peripheral vision and high-fived each other. The female twin spoke. "Man, he really was a psycho after all, huh?"

"Yep. I told you, never trust someone whose hair is bigger than their own head. Now come on, we gotta get back to the Shack." Dipper wrapped an arm around his sister's shoulders with her doing the same for him, the two laughing and joking as they walked off. When their laughter could no longer be heard, the hidden quartet jumped down from their hiding spot.

Jeff grinned and smacked Shmebulock in the back happily. "See, I told you she was a good choice for a queen! If only it weren't for that other brat with her, we would've gotten her."

"Shmebulock!" the other gnome nodded eagerly in agreement. Naruto and Kurama gave them deadpan stares.

"You guys do realize you're talking about my younger siblings, right?" Naruto asked, arching an eyebrow at the two. The gnomes froze. Jeff chuckled nervously while Shmebulock stood behind him, hoping to get the least amount of bodily harm as possible.

"Uh, does that mean that you guys have heard about the… scuffle we were in against them?" Seeing that the teen's expression now showed curiosity and confusion, he elaborated. "You know, the… uh… the whole kidnapping-your-sister thing?"

"Ah, that." Naruto nodded in understanding. "Of course we do. After all, you guys fought at the Mystery Shack, during my great-uncle's work hours. You should have been more discrete. The townsfolk might have seen you. You were lucky though, when he saw you guys, he immediately distracted the people he had been entertaining."

Jeff then timidly looked down at his feet as he shuffled them. "So, uh… by any chance… can we _please_ take Mabel as our queen?"

Naruto stared at Kurama as he checked that he had secured everything on his back using chakra during their hasty jump into the trees and sighed. "No, Jeff. So far, we've only let her out on a date once, and that took a lot of holding back on the bloodlust meter. Now you're asking us to let her marry your entire species? Nope."

 **"It doesn't help that the guy who we let her go out on a first date with was that short psycho kid we just saw. With how his personality actually was, it doesn't help our outlooks on Mabel dating guys."** Kurama glanced at them from the corner of his eye as he laid down, sprawled on the ground. **"Just be happy we aren't going to do anything to you for the stunt you pulled on them."**

Jeff and Shmebulock flinched, the latter speaking up.

"Shmebulock, Shmebulock. Shmebulock. Shmebulock!" the short creature waved his arms rapidly with Jeff nodding in agreement, the translation of his words being: "We're sorry, boss. We didn't know. We'll do anything to make it up to you guys!"

"Make it up to us, eh..." Naruto said absentmindedly, staring at where his siblings had disappeared off to. "Well, now that I think about it, there _is_ something I need you guys to do…"

* * *

13.) Va gvzr, znal punatr. Whfg nf ubj fbzr tebj jrnx nf gurl ntr.


	4. Chapter 4

**YO! Crazy7634, here with a new update. Man, it's been so long… *Sigh* Sorry about the delay guys, but I originally planned on updating every single story I had at once, but school and life had other plans. I've had to deal with speeches, assessments, braces, birthday invitations and a lot more. As much as I would like to say that updates will come a lot faster since I'm currently on term break, I'm afraid that I have to work on two important tests which will determine how easy my year of school next year will be during this time. Well, with all that being said and done, I present to you, the first 10k word chapter of… Gravity Falls: The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Chapter 4 – Ghosts of the Past

A bead of sweat trailed down his forehead. He felt the hair under his blue and white hat slowly become damp. His chocolate eyes were narrowed as he stared at the test of mental capacity in front of him, his lips pursed in contemplation and his fingers steepled underneath his chin. The thoughts swirling in his mind went a mile a minute before everything came to a complete halt. He let out a breath, his crossed legs tensed on the wooden floor as he raised a shaking arm in order to reach one of the plastic pieces standing vigil on a checkered board. He tentatively lifted it up, sliding it to his right in order to situate it one square away from its previous position. His face scrunched up, his fingers hesitantly placing it on the flat box. His eyes then flickered up to his opponent's face, scrutinizing his intrigued expression. He flinched when the other male's eye curved upwards, knowing that this meant he was smiling. The cerulean-eyed competitor confidently moved one of his own pieces a few squares upwards, his head tilting up slightly as he stared at his shorter foe.

"Checkmate!"

Dipper let out a growl of frustration, his eyes twitching while his hands clutched the sides of his hat as he pulled them down in anger. He buried his face in his hands, thinking about how he could've been outsmarted while his body leaned back against the sleeping Kurama behind him. Naruto chuckled at his younger sibling's reaction along with Mabel, Soos, and Wendy. The older teen moved forward, reaching over to ruffle the short boy's hair through his hat.

"Don't sweat it, li'l bro. You caught me by surprise a couple of times this round. If you keep practicing, I've got no doubt that you'll be able to whoop my butt in chess later on in time." Naruto smirked underneath his mask, proud at how fast his little brother's intellect was growing. "He- OW! Oi, what was that for?"

As he was about to say more, he felt someone give his elongated hair a short but harsh tug. He twisted his head slightly and glanced back at his sister, raising an eyebrow at the concentrated look she held as she fiddled with his untied and untamed hair. Not looking away from her brushing, she absentmindedly gave him a reply.

"Your hair is hard enough to manage as it is. Stop squirming or I'll mess something up." Naruto huffed and looked away childishly, causing Mabel to giggle. She had known Naruto long enough to realize that he was pouting underneath his mask. Putting the hairbrush down on the ground, she nabbed the hair tie laying on the floor beside her and began to tie the male's hair into a ponytail. Pushing the knot up to tighten it, she nodded in approval before standing up from her kneeling position. "Alright, all done!"

The spiky-haired teen grunted as he stood up, his younger brother following his actions. He picked up his own orange cap and ran a hand through his now half-blonde and half-brown hair, smiling under his mask. He pulled his hat onto his head and patted his sister on the head gratefully. "Thank you, Mabel."

The trio of siblings blinked when they heard a feminine giggle come from the check-out station. Turning to the redhead leaning against the wooden desk, he raised an eyebrow questioningly. Feeling that she was being watched, Wendy looked up from her reading and looked around. When she saw the look he sent her, she gave him a cheeky grin.

"What?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and elaborated. "What were you laughing about?"

"Oh, nothing…" The female Corduroy gave him a sideways smirk. "Most of the guys I know would rather jump into the Mystery Shack's "Bottomless Pit" before doing something that someone our age would consider at least a little bit girly. Yet, here you are, letting your baby sister tie your hair up as if you two were in the middle of a slumber party."

He tilted his head to the side, slightly confused. "So? I happen to like doing activities with my younger siblings, even if whatever we may be doing is what other males consider "girly". I hope that it isn't a problem?"

"Nah, it's not a problem." She set the magazine she was reading down and crossed her arms, sending him an amused smile. "In fact, my respect for you has actually kinda grown. Out of all the teenagers I know, only very few tolerate the younger kids in their family. But to actually interact with them? Hah. To be honest, I dunno why they automatically steer away from them. I mean I get that they can be a bit annoying at times, no offense Dipper and Mabel, but c'mon. They're just kids, ya know?"

Naruto's eye curved up once more as he smiled in agreement, kneeling down in order to hug his smiling siblings by the shoulders. "Preach."

A tug on his hoodie and the sound of his sister's voice caught the male teen's attention. "Uh… N?"

"Hmm?"

"Dipper and I were going to go and play mini golf in our room. I was wondering… if… you wanted to play with us?" Naruto glanced sadly down at his siblings' hopeful looks and let out a sigh.

"Sorry kiddo, but I was planning on going out to town today so that I can go get a job. Grunkle Stan may have one, but he can barely make enough to sustain himself, let alone two other people." He chuckled but quickly stopped when he saw their still downtrodden expressions. He sighed again. "I'm sorry guys, I really am. I'll see you later, alright?"

"Alright…"

"See ya, bro-bro…"

He eye-smiled and messed their hair before turning to the shop's handyman.

"Oh, and Soos, can you come over here for a minute?" The sweeping man raised an eyebrow and placed the broom he was holding against the wall nearby. Once he was in front of him, N leaned forward and whispered into his ear. "Can you do me a favour? Grunkle Stan says that you've seen _her_ sneak off to our old hangout before. Can you make sure not to let her get up there? I have some things on that platform that I need to hide, you know, in case they suddenly trigger something now that I'm here."

The Caucasian-Hispanic male nodded in understanding and gave him a salute. "Got it dude!"

Naruto smirked as the man-child went back to sweeping and whistled sharply to Kurama, ignoring the others' curious stares. The fox immediately perked up, his scarlet eyes quickly finding him. The mysterious Pines used his head to gesture to the outside before making his way out the door with its bell signaling his exit, Kurama following closely after him. Wendy's eyes narrowed in suspicion, emerald irises following her fellow teen's face as he hopped into his car. They then slid upwards, focusing on the hair that poked out of the bottom of his hat. Was it just her, or did his hair colour change? Before she could think more of the subject, her head pulsed, the slight pain it brought her making her freeze. As this happened, certain twenty-two-year-old paused his chore, his eyes filling with worry when he saw her flinch. She became dazed as the sight of her surroundings were replaced by the fuzzy image of a grinning golden-haired child, his face too blurry to be recognized. But as quickly as the vision came, it dissipated and she was once again back in the real world.

 _'Ow! Ah, not again. Why does this always happen? *sigh* Okay Wendy, just clear your mind and it'll be fine. It's how you've dealt with this for the past couple of years. Try to think back to earlier… Hm… Oh, right. What was that whispering about?'_ She thought, her curiosity on the subject of her boss's eldest great-nephew growing. She clicked her tongue as she watched his orange truck drive into the forest road, her eyes catching the brief flash of a tail as it ducked away from sight. _'I wonder what he's up to… maybe the twins know.'_

Turning to the duo, she was about to ask the question when she spotted their dejected faces and cast a small, sympathetic smile. From the ramblings she'd been subjected to before the enigmatic teen's arrival, she could tell that the three siblings were very close. Not being able to spend time with their brother as much as they're used to must be taking a toll on them, just like if her younger brothers were to be denied from spending time with their father.

"A couple of pennies for a pair of twins' thoughts?"

Her voice snapped them out of their daze, their heads snapping to her in surprise.

"Huh?" They voiced out in sync.

"Hey, it's pretty obvious something's bothering you guys, and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it has something to do with your older brother N." She walked around the desk's corner and sat on the counter, giving the smaller two a knowing smirk. "Now come on, tell me what's wrong."

They shared a glance and each rubbed an arm nervously. Hooking a foot behind a leg slightly, Dipper spoke first. "Well, it's just that he hasn't really been spending much time with us lately… which his odd since the three of us would be, according to our parents, near-inseparable during the summer."

He raised a hand up to his chin and gained a thoughtful look while Mabel nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah. He's acting kinda different from when we have summers back in Piedmont."

Wendy blinked silently, her eyes curious. "Different? How so?"

"Well, he'd normally be pretty laid-back, and would spend every day with us pranking others and generally just messing around…" Dipper said, his head down as he stared at the wooden floorboards in thought, a finger still on his chin. "But although he's still spent time with us the past week we've been here, he's more… serious, than normal."

"Yeah!" His twin added, nodding. "He's more secretive too. Like, Grunkle Stan told us he'd be living outside the Mystery Shack for the summer, and whenever we asked him where he would be staying, he doesn't say anything and just changes the subject."

The redhead leaned back slightly, placing a hand on either side of her for balance. "Huh, I guess that _is_ pretty weird. Who knows what's going through that guy's head right now."

"I know, right?" She started, walking over to Wendy. She jumped up and, with slight difficulty, managed to take a seat beside the taller girl. "I mean, why is it so hard to understand guys? You can never tell if they'll end up either being some sort of a gnome or a creepy psycho instead of the unknown vigilante that you secretly hope for."

The Corduroy raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Thinking about that Gideon kid again?"

"Yeah…" Mabel let out a tired breath before laying back on the counter, her legs hanging off the side. "Hey, Wendy… you've had boyfriends before, right?"

Dipper groaned. "Well, this conversation quickly took a turn for the strange."

The freckled teen laughed into a hand at the boy before turning back to Mabel. "Yeah, quite a lot actually. Why?"

"How do you know if you should be with them or not?"

Wendy's eyebrows shot up to her hairline in surprise and she looked at the girl dubiously. "What?"

"I just- ah, I don't know anymore. I mean, that's been flying around my head for a while know, and I thought you'd know the answer."

"Okay, but why me? I thought that this would be a question you'd ask N or something."

"Well, even though he was quite popular back in Piedmont, he didn't really want to be a part of stuff like this. If a girl asked him out, he'd just sorta scratch his head sheepishly and try to say no in a polite manner." Mabel lifted her head up and banged it back on the desk lightly. "You have more experience with this sort of thing than me. I mean, c'mon, I haven't even had my first kiss yet!"

"First kiss…?" Wendy repeated absentmindedly. "Huh, I forgot that was supposed to be a big thing. To be honest, I can't remember who I had that with, but my mom always said she knew."

Mabel gasped and sat up straight, staring into Wendy's eyes with a starry-eyed look. "Did she tell you who?"

Dipper moaned as he smacked his face with his palm. His twin always was a sucker for things like this. He, unfortunately for his current situation, was not. "Aaaand, I'm outta here."

The female brunette rolled her eyes at her sibling and focused on Wendy, her curiosity overriding her slight annoyance. The other girl merely chuckled at Dipper as he walked over to help Soos sweep the shop.

"Well, she said it happened ten years ago, back when I was still eight. I can't really remember much from that time or anything from before then. Even my mom herself said that couldn't recall much about the guy-"

Now THAT got Dipper's attention. He froze mid-step, his eyes widening at the seemingly useless tidbit of information. Ten years and lack of memories? Seemed awfully familiar to him…

"-but she told me that she could remember a basic description at least. She said that I had been pretty close with a boy with untamed blonde hair and shining crystalline eyes my age. He'd come and go from Gravity Falls, only staying for a little while. Apparently, it happened by accident. We were running from a pet that he had with him, laughing our heads off. As we ran past the old Dusk2Dawn shop, we turned around to see how far away we were but accidentally tripped over our own feet, landing on the cracked pavement with our lips locked. Then she laughed and talked about adorable our flustered faces looked whenever we were together after that, saying that at least we didn't go off somewhere to cause trouble for a while."

Mabel looked up at Wendy with an amazed gaze. "Aww, you guys sounded so cuuute!"

"Heh. I figured you would say somethin' like that." She said with a slight knowing tone as she sent a half-smirk down at the girl.

Mabel's currently star-shaped pupils shone as she shook like a child on a sugar high in her excitement. "Where is he now? Did you guys ever get together?"

"Ah, I… don't know where he is, neither do my folks. He just stopped coming to Gravity Falls one day. They said that the last time we saw him was when he'd gotten on a bus to leave for his parents', and we've never seen him since. Even though I've forgotten most of the stuff I knew about him, I kinda wanna meet him. Ya know, outta curiosity."

"OH! What if it all turns out to be some sort of twisty, romantic love story?! I can just see it now. After years of being apart, the two destined ones finally meet again in an unexpected manner!"

Wendy's smirk grew, her amusement growing as the younger female kept going on and on about possibilities. Seeing the girl still carrying the naivety and innocence that most children the sweater-lover's age had made the teen happy. It kind of reminded her of how she used to be… but, you know, _kind of_. She tried to stifle her giggles, but at times, she couldn't help but let out a laugh at a few of her ideas. Seriously, an enigmatic hero who carries the burdens and memories of a past life? How believable is that?

While his twin gushed over the story, Dipper's thoughts were on something different. "Hey, Wendy, what was that about not really being able to remember things again?"

She shot him a confused stare. "Huh?"

Dipper scratched his head sheepishly, similarly to his older brother. "You said something about not being able to remember."

"Oh, yeah. I can pretty much remember what happened during the year I turned nine until now, but most of the stuff from the year I turned eight and before is all but a hazy blur."

"By any chance, do you remember any rumours that may have been circling about the town, regarding the memories situation?"

"Uh… no? Why do you ask?" She tilted her head slightly, her eyes trying not to look at the still fangirling Mabel.

"A-Ah, nothing. Just… curious."

The redhead raised an eyebrow at the boy before shrugging.

 _'Oh, well. It isn't any of my business. Besides, he's probably just thinking about something he's seen in that weird book I saw him read from time to time.'_ She was going to speak again when the sound of the door's bell jingling cut her off and prevented any words from escaping her lips.

"Hey, brats. I'm gonna go into town. I remember that I still owed Mabel something cuz of that marriage stunt, so… you two want anything?" Stan grunted, looking at his great-niece and great-nephew. The twins shared a grin and yelled out one word.

"CHOCOLATE!"

Their great-uncle rolled his eyes. "Noted. Now Wendy, Soos, I need you two to clean the bathrooms. Got it?"

Both of then stood up straight and gave a salute.

"Got it Mr. Pines!" Soos smiled widely.

"Absolutely not, Boss!" Wendy smirked cheekily.

"Ha ha! Stay outta trouble at least, alright?" And with that, the old man left. Wendy waited until he had driven off at a considerable distance away from the Shack before tapping the Pines twins on the shoulders as she walked over to a not-so-subtly-put curtain.

"Oh, what's this?" She asked them over-dramatically. With one pull, the curtain moved to the side, revealing a ladder. "Gasp! It's a secret ladder!"

Soos flinched, Naruto's earlier words re-appearing in his mind. "Uh, dudes, I don't think you should go up there. Don't think Mr. Pines would like that."

"Eh, what's Stan gonna do about it? He's not here right now, is he?" Wendy shrugged.

"I wasn't exactly talking about Stan…" Soos turned to the two children. "I'll re-phrase. I don't think N would like you two doing something dangerous like going up there."

The two gained puzzled expressions. "Huh, why? What's up there?"

Soos shuffled his feet anxiously. "Well-"

"The ladder leads up to the roof of the Shack, THAT'S why he says it's dangerous." The eldest Corduroy child interjected, a foot already on the ladder. "You guys gonna come up here or not?"

The duo turned to each other and shrugged, large grins stretching on their faces as they began to follow Wendy up the ladder. Soos stared up at them nervously, his hands clutching his broom a bit tighter. He had seen her freeze earlier and knew that she was beginning to recall more and more of the past, a fact that made him very concerned. The redhead had frozen during work many times before, and with the increase in the occurrences' rate, he feared that soon… Soos shook his head. He could only hope that not only would N forgive the fact that he couldn't stop them, but also that Wendy wouldn't get another memory flash because of his inability to do so.

* * *

[With Naruto]

"AchoO!" The young man sneezed as he parked his car. Rubbing the tip of his nose with a finger, he sniffed and mumbled to himself. "Jeez, I hope I'm not getting a cold or something."

He stepped out of his truck before slamming the door shut. His steps making crunching noises as loose bits of asphalt shifted under his shoes. Pressing a button on his car keys, he let out a satisfied smirk when the sound of the vehicle's alarm activating reached his ears. Craning his head to the building overshadowing him, he sighed as he walked into the Gravity Falls Police Station, readying himself for an interrogation from the town's local sheriff. He let out a breath and made his way through the door, the scent of air conditioning immediately hitting his nostrils. His sensitive nose began to twitch at the change in the atmosphere but a light bop from his fist made it stop. His eye scanned the reception area before it widened when he spotted Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland laughing as they exited a room.

 _'Probably going out for a break…'_ He assumed. The half-blonde then walked up to the chatting officers, his movement making them turn towards him. Once their minds had processed who it was, any words they had been about to speak were thrown out the window as their jaws hung in surprise. He shifted uneasily at their stares, coughing into a fist after a few minutes of silence passed. Sheriff Blubs was the first of the two to snap out of his stupor, a grin growing on his face.

"Well, well. After all these years, the little spiky ball of energy comes back. Then again, we can't exactly call you little anymore, considering that you're taller than Durland now. Though, it also seems we can't call you a ball of energy either if your lazy lookin' self is anything to go by. Heh. We were wonderin' when you'd come to pay us a visit." Naruto stood in front of the duo, a hand scratching the back of his head as he gave them a nervous eye smile, his body slouching forward slightly.

"Yeah. There were a few situations revolving around living space, younger siblings, and heavily damaged walls at the Mystery Shack. I had to get those stuff done first before I could start catching up with the townsfolk."

Deputy Durland smirked at his ex-boss's great-nephew. "Of course that old scam artist was the reason you took so long, and I'm guessing that by siblings you mean those two wee li'l city children we've seen hangin' around Stanford?"

The Pines teen gave a shaky nod, happy that they didn't notice the split-second flinch he gave at the name. "Yeah. Have they been causing trouble?"

"Well, they _did_ wrongly accuse someone of murder…" Seeing the owlish expression on Naruto's face, the sheriff chuckled. "Let me explain. The only time when we had to directly talk to them was when the boy wanted to play detective and went on a hunt for Stan's wax figure's head. He an' his sister went on a manhunt around the whole town. After getting the information they thought was solid, they told us that the one who had murdered the wax man was Toby Determined."

Durland shivered. "I will never forget what we saw on 'is television that day…"

Blubs patted him soothingly on the back before he continued on. "Turns out it wasn't the guy. We drove by a day or so later and, wantin' to tease the kid about his failure, asked if he had figured out the case yet. Took a sip from my coffee and had to spit it out a second later when he actually said yes."

Naruto raised his eyebrow, an action that the stout man and his colleague noticed. The long-nosed deputy chuckled slightly. "Kid's actually pretty smart. He's got a good brain, that one. Just like you. Might be a famous detective in-the-making, eh?"

He only received an unsure eye smile in return. "A-Ah, maybe…"

 _'As good as a future occupation that may be for him, I wish he'd stop being one during the summer…'_

Sheriff Blubs, noticing that the air was beginning to turn slightly awkward, went to stand beside Naruto and slapped him gamely on the back. "Now, what are we all still doing here for? Durland and I can't be on break forever. How's about we go over to Greasy's Diner for a cup of coffee, N? We were just about to head out when we saw you makin' your way over."

The other two nodded happily. As they made their way outside the station, Naruto looked down to his side to address the dark-skinned officer. "So, which car? Yours or mine?"

"You have one?"

"Yep. It's the beautiful rust-orange Ranger."

"Let's go then! Forget shotgun, me an' Durland are hoppin' on the back!"

Naruto laughed when they jumped onto the open back area of his truck and slid into the driver's seat. As he turned his car keys to switch the engine on, his eye caught sight of the picture dangling from his rear-view mirror, a memento from last year's Halloween. He smiled warmly at the sight of Dipper and Mabel dressed up as vampires while he was dressed as a crimson werewolf. His mind then wandered, filled with thoughts on what could possibly be happening back with his siblings. His eye stared at the smirking Kurama in the picture, hoping that he was doing what he had asked him to.

* * *

[With Kurama]

 **"This is so troublesome… at least I can take a nap after this."** The fox grumbled to himself as he lifted a rectangular piece of wood from the roof, his eyes lazily scanning the dusty inside of the secret compartment revealed by its removal. He turned to the paint can placed by his paws and clamped his teeth gently around its thin handle. He threw it nonchalantly into the cubbyhole along with the paintbrush lying near the still slightly wet paint that covered an old chalk outline that had been surprisingly untouched. The fox clicked his tongue at the sight of the layer of paint, still miffed at the irremovable drawing. Using a tail, he took the super glue that Naruto had given him earlier and slowly applied it to the underside of the roofing item held in his other appendage. He sighed in boredom. **"Once his energy fully regenerates, I'm just going to sleep for as long as I want. He can take care of whatever thing he finds to be a problem himself."**

His ears then twitched, his form tensing as the sound of voices reached his rabbit-like ears, the tail around the tube of glue nearly squeezing out all of its contents. He swore under his breath and quickly shoved the four-sided object back into place after he chucked the tube of glue into the small storage area as well. He heard footsteps get closer to his location and curled into himself, setting up the façade of being asleep. The quadruped gritted his teeth slightly and began to identify the owners of the voices.

"…I didn't know that we could get up here!" Someone muttered in amazement, letting out a gasp as they reached the top of the roof. Kurama fought back a smirk. That was definitely Mabel.

"Are you sure this roof is stable enough? Soos seemed pretty worried about us going up here." And that unsure speaker was, of course, Dipper.

 _ **'How'd these brats get up here? Last time I checked, Soos was supposed to keep an eye on them. Gah! The kids might be a bit too much like Naruto at times when it comes to dangerous things, but I thought they'd at least have enough tact to listen to someone who is nearly ten years older than them.'**_ He wondered until his ears picked up a third set of footsteps. He sniffed the air and froze. _ **'…I should've known.'**_

"Yeah, it's fine. I've been here so many times. If it wasn't able to handle people walking on it, I would've fallen down into the shop at least once by now." Wendy reassured, grinning at their stunned faces. She spotted a flash of reddish-orange and blinked at the sight of the "sleeping" fox nearby. "Hey Dipper, Mabel. Isn't that K down there?"

Said fox let out a mental sigh, readying himself to be "awoken".

 _ **'Here we go…'**_

"Oh my gosh, it is!" Mabel squealed. Kurama heard her fearlessly thunder down the slanted roof and his eyes snapped open when he felt her dive onto him, using his furry back as a cushion. "Hey, big guy! Why are you up here? You know about this place?"

 **"Grrr…"** He let out a short guttural growl, his slitted irises staring at Mabel through half-lidded eyes. He felt her slide down his side and turned himself over so that his back was against the wooden platform, Mabel now lying on his stomach. The girl let out a giggle and rubbed the large fox's belly, Wendy and Dipper slowly making their way down to them.

"Aww, you big lug!" She let out a wide smile and spread herself out on his stomach, relaxing into his soft fur. The other two walked up to them, Wendy giving him a curious look while Dipper went to join his sibling.

"…How did you get up here?" She muttered under her breath. The twins didn't seem to hear her, but Kurama sure did, an eye now peeking up at her. She noticed his stare and turned to the children. "Hey guys, how is he up here?"

Mabel ignored her and wriggled deeper into the canine's stomach while her doppelganger sat up and answered. "We don't know. Him appearing in weird places is normal, though. One time, me and Mabel saw him sleeping on a tree branch while N slept on a higher one. It's a bit surprising at first, but you get used to it."

"Okay… well, you guys want a drink?" The redhead asked, walking over to the cooler placed on top of the lawn chair as she tried to wave the piece of information off. Her head ached at the strange familiarity she felt at hearing of the fox's antics. She ducked under the outdoor umbrella shading the furniture and stared at the cooler confusedly. "Huh, I coulda sworn this wasn't here before…"

Kurama's eye twitched. He had moved the cooler in order to paint over the inscriptions placed on its previous position, but unfortunately had not been able to move it back after the paint dried. He mentally winced at his mistake and expanded his stomach, catching the twins' attention. He pointed his muzzle over to the cooler and hoped that they would take her mind off of the subject. **"Graah…"**

"Huh?"

Both of them looked at him perplexedly before they remembered the question their distracted minds barely processed. Dipper flipped over from his stomach in order to face Wendy, too comfortable to sit up.

"Oh, right! Sure, I'll take one."

"Me too!"

Kurama rolled his eyes and wiggled into the wooden platform, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible on the hardwood floor. The teen nodded and grabbed three cans from the cooler, throwing two into the twins' directions.

"Heads up!"

The boy's eyes widened and he hastily launched himself upwards, catching the drinks as he was slightly airborne. Before he could sigh in relief, he felt himself falling backward and began to flail his arms.

"WOaah!" Dipper looked to the corner of his eye, fear growing in him as he spotted the grass below coming closer.

"Dipper!" Wendy yelled out in alarm and quickly slammed the cooler closed, her drink now rolling on the ground forgotten as she ran to the other side of the platform.

Mabel gasped and tried to grab his arm, only to miss by just a centimetre. "No!"

The young Pines forced his eyes to close and readied himself to feel pain, only for his fall to be halted as he felt something wrap around his waist. He opened his eyes, staring bewilderedly at the furry appendages holding him still. He tilted his head up and was both relieved and afraid to see Kurama staring at him through narrowed eyes. He felt himself slowly being pulled back up and was immediately wrapped up by two different hugs once he was safe.

"Dang it, Dipper!"

"Dude, don't worry us like that!"

 **"Raah!"** Kurama growled, glaring at the boy. He let out a huff and thought to himself. _**'Tch. These Pines are gonna be the death of me! What the heck was he thinking?!'**_

The hat-wearing thirteen-year-old placed the cans back on the ground and rubbed his arm nervously. "Sorry, guys. I didn't think that that would happen."

"It's fine. Just don't do it again, alright?" The Corduroy sighed, a hand on her chest as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. _'I just hope that N and Mr. Pines don't hear about this… that wouldn't be a pretty sight- huh?'_

Her thoughts were interrupted as a car honked its horn from the road beside the Shack. She peered over the edge and smiled when she saw her friends shouting from a blue car. The twins followed her example and looked down, tilting their heads at the sight of the vehicle.

"Who are they?" Mabel asked, curious about the yelling teenagers.

"They're my friends." Wendy answered with a smile. She stood up and was about to jump onto the tree nearby when she paused and turned to the Pines siblings. "Uh… you guys aren't gonna tell Stan about this, are you?"

The two made zipping motions over their mouths and "threw away the key" while Kurama merely let out a grunt. Wendy smiled in appreciation and jumped to the tree, using it to slide to another before finally reaching the ground. She ran into the car and the form of transportation drove off into the forest, leaving the twins to watch it disappear while their fox companion took a nap.

* * *

[Late Next Afternoon]

Naruto pulled his hoodie on as he exited the Mystery Shack, a sandwich in his hand as he made his way to his car, Kurama already sleeping in the back. As he was about to close the door, he stopped when he heard his younger sister call out to him.

"N, wait!" He turned and saw brother and sister run up to him. They skidded to a stop just before they crashed into him and smiled up at him eagerly. "You got a job, right? Can we go with you?"

"Yeah! Please?"

His cobalt irises softened into an apologetic gaze and he gave them both a pat on the head. "Sorry guys, but I can't. I'd love to take you along, but I'm not allowed to just yet. Now I gotta go, or else I'll be late for my first shift."

He rushed out the door and drove away, pretending not to notice the way that they stared at the floorboards sadly. Wendy watched the scene happen from behind the counter and sighed. It seemed like the other teen always taking off while his siblings were stuck in the tourist trap would be a normal occurrence now. She heard the cuckoo clock alert her and took the nametag on her shirt off with a smirk. It was quitting time. She walked around the check-out and was going to leave but stopped as a thought came to mind.

"…Hey, guys." The twins tilted their heads up, looking up at her quietly. "Since you can't hang out with N, how about you come with me and my friends?"

Their eyes widened, excited grins growing on their faces. "Really?"

"Yeah. Why not? You guys are thirteen, right?"

"Yep."

"Then that means you're technically teens. So let's go!"

The two shared glances between themselves before nodding in agreement, smiling happily at Wendy. They followed her out and laughed when they saw her friends throwing marbles into another guy's belly button. Mabel grinned as they kept missing and spotted the stray marble by her feet. She picked it up and shared a joking look with Dipper, something that Wendy didn't miss.

 _'What are they planning?'_ Her forest-green orbs then noticed the marble the shorter female held and smirked. The girl held the marble in her right hand and drew it to her left side. She took aim and swung her arm quickly to the right, throwing the marble when she found an opening, her grin widening when it flawlessly hit the inside of the belly button. Wendy placed a hand on her shoulder. "Nice shot, kiddo!"

The girl let out a delighted smile at her praise while the group of teens had heard her voice and turned to face her, finally sensing the other three's presences. They beamed and yelled out. "WENDY!"

"Hey, guys! Ready to go to Dusk2Dawn?"

"Heck yeah!"

"Alright. Now these little munchkins here…" She knelt down and ruffled the twins' hairs, both playfully batting her hands away. "…are Mabel and Dipper. They'll be coming with us today."

One of her friends gained a confused expression. "Are you sure about this? Can they handle it?"

Wendy smirked. "Of course they can, Lee. They're thirteen. Technically teens, right?"

"If you say so." The now-known Lee was the tallest and lankiest teen in the group. He had long blonde hair, wore a red "thumbs up" shirt and black shorts along with a pair of black and white converses.

"Besides, if they can somehow survive living under the same roof as my boss without losing sanity, I think they can handle anything."

Mabel and Dipper laughed with the redhead at her cheeky barb against their great-uncle. The chubbiest of the group flinched along with the emo-like female standing near him. His right hand nervously felt the watch on his left wrist while the girl, who had been relaxing against a wooden fence, stood up straight. The brown-haired male stuttered out a question, his voice trembling. "W-Wait… they're Pines?"

"Yeah. Stop being so worried, Thompson. It's not like I'm going to get fired just because I took my boss's great-niece and great-nephew out for some fun." The flannel-wearing female rolled her eyes at him.

Mabel and Wendy shook the concern in his voice off, but Dipper didn't. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion and inspected the big-boned male wearing a green shirt, brown shorts and black and grey shoes. He seemed fine with them until he learned their surnames… why was he so nervous all of a sudden?

The chubby male noticed the younger boy's gaze and sighed. He tilted his head down to the ground, his eyes scanning the hat on Dipper's head, muttering to himself. "It's not Mr. Pines I'm worried about angering…"

The boy continued to scrutinize the teen until another voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Tch. Whatever. Just don't blame us if they freak out 'cause they can't handle it." Dipper glanced to his left at the definitely emo male leaning against the blue van. The guy had a black guitar strapped to his back, wore a stitched heart hoodie with blue jeans and black shoes. He couldn't seem to be able to care less about them.

Wendy shook her head at the teen before addressing the twins. "Well, I guess introductions are in order. The emo guy who just talked is Robbie, you guys can already guess who Lee and Thompson are, and the two others left are Nate and Tambry."

Nate was a dark-skinned male with tattoos on his arms. He had a blue and white cap that was similar to Dipper's and was wearing a black skull shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. Tambry had short purple hair with pink highlights and wore a purple shirt, a dark purple skirt, light purple leggings and black boots. The two teens gave the younger duo a nod which the Pines twins reciprocated. Nate then took a step forward, raising his arms up impatiently.

"C'mon guys, we've wasted enough time here. Let's go already!"

Robbie narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at his face. "Hey, don't boss me around, man. You're not the one who had enough guts to climb the water tower and spray paint it."

Dipper perked up. "Oh, you mean the muffin?"

The black-haired male growled. "It's a giant _explosion._ "

Everyone turned to the water tower and inspected the "art". Lee chuckled and nudged Nate with an elbow. "Heheh. It actually does look like a muffin."

The two laughed to themselves, making Robbie snarl in anger. He turned to Dipper and gave him a harsh glare, making the younger teen shrink. Wendy giggled and clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention. "Although it _does_ look like a muffin, I gotta agree with Nate. We've already lost enough fun times by standing around here. Let's get a move on."

Everyone piled into the car, all letting out excited shouts. Dipper and Mabel grinned to each other. Maybe this day wouldn't end up being so bad after all.

* * *

[Later]

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Nope, they were wrong. It was DEFINITELY going to end up bad. Dipper frantically flipped through his Journal 3 as he hid in a cupboard with Wendy, both panting in exhaustion.

"I can't find anything that can help us right now!"

"OH jeez, what the heck is going on?!" She clutched her hat, her mind wandering back to her friends' fates. "What do they want from us?!"

"Uh… I don't know- revenge, I guess?" He answered unsurely.

"But what did we do wrong?"

"O-Okay, okay. Let's try to figure things out… why was everyone turned into something else?" He held his head in his hands. "Tambry was texting, and she was put in a TV. Lee was being sarcastic, which was why he was put into a cereal box. Nate got frustrated, so he was turned into a hotdog. Thompson was playing video games, then he was shoved into the game."

"This doesn't make any sense!" Wendy gritted her teeth, her brain working a mile a minute. "Those are just normal teenage things. What is their problem?!"

Dipper's eyes widened in realization. "W-Wait, say that last part again?"

"What is their problem?"

"No, no. The last part of the sentence before that."

"Normal teenage things?"

"That's it! Wendy, they have a problem with teenagers!"

She looked at him dumbfounded. "What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. It's the only thing that adds up at the moment… but what are we supposed to do? All of us are teenagers…"

"Yeah… maybe after a while they'll calm down?"

The boy opened the door slightly and stared at his floating sister. He sighed and pursed his lips. "I hope so… they've got Mabel under their control."

He saw a bright light from the edge of his peripheral vision and gasped when he saw Tambry's surprisingly intact phone. He snatched it and immediately closed the door. Wendy saw the device and hope flashed in her eyes. "Nice! But who can even help with something like this?"

He stayed silent and stared at the phone. He entered a few numbers and placed it in Wendy's hand. "Okay, I don't know if he can help us in this particular situation or not, but his number is the only one I can think of at the moment. You call him, I have an idea that will most likely not work, but is still better than nothing."

The lumberjack's daughter stared at him suspiciously. "…What are you planning?"

Dipper winced and let out a calming breath. "Something that is very stupidly Pines-like."

Her eyes widened when she saw him rocket out of their hiding place. She tried to reach for him, but it was too late. "Dipper!"

The Pines called out to his twin and waved his arms. "Hey, ghost! Over here!"

Mabel's glowing form spun around, her pupil-less eyes gazing down at him menacingly. **"Oh-Ho-Ho! So, you finally show your face."**

"I've got something to tell you!" He felt himself become lighter. He let out a surprised yelp when he was coated in blue energy and was brought eye-to-eye with his sister. "I'm only thirteen. Only TECHNICALLY a teen. I'm not a teenager and neither is my sister! You're attacking the wrong people in this rampage!"

The ghost was silent… before it let out a dark chuckle. **"Do you really think that your reasoning will get you out of this situation? Technically or not, you are still a teen, and thus, you deserve to be punished!"**

Wendy, who had been observing the scene, winced as Dipper let out a yell. She closed the cupboard and called the number in Tambry's phone. "C'mon… pick up, pick up!"

* * *

[With Naruto and Kurama]

Naruto shook hands with Sheriff Blubs and gave Deputy Durland a smack on the back. "Thanks again for giving me this job, guys."

The chubby man chuckled. "Hahah, don't worry N. We know you're one of the people who won't abuse your powers as an officer. Temporary or not. Besides, most of the time, we can't really be bothered to do much, so your recruitment is very much welcome."

"Well, thanks again. I'm going to go back home now. See ya guys!"

"Alright, we'll see you tomorrow, Officer Pines."

"See ya, city boy!"

The teen nodded happily and left the station. He laughed lowly when he saw the multi-tailed fox still snoozing in the back of his truck and walked over to the driver's seat. He was about to open the door when he spotted the small, crudely written note taped to his window. He pulled it off of the glass and narrowed his eyes as he read the tiny lettering, confusion evident in his face.

"Eh, won… zee ti-wen-ti six? Well, that doesn't make sense at all!"

He raised it up to the sky, an eyebrow raised, realization striking him when the moon's light revealed that the real message was on the other side. He flipped the paper over and quickly read its eyes widened in surprise and he gritted his teeth, his irises darkening a few shades as his hand became limp, leaving the slip of paper to fall to the concrete floor. Before he could wake Kurama up, his ringing phone caught his attention and did the job for him. He reached into his jacket pocket and hurriedly fished it out. He was surprised to see that it was a number that he had never seen before. His thumb hovered over the red ignore button, but his curiosity overrode his logic. He pressed accept and put his phone on speaker. "Uh… hello?"

"H-Hello? Who is this?!" Naruto and Kurama were stunned to hear a very panicked voice at the end of the line. Tentatively, he replied.

"My name is N. Who are you?"

"N?! Oh jeez. I was wondering whose number Dipper put in. Look, there isn't much time, we're in trouble!"

His cerulean orbs became ice-cold and Kurama bit back a snarl. "What's going on?"

"W-We don't know. We were just messing around in an old convenience store after Dipper managed to get us in and then later Mabel just starts glowing and other weird stuff started to happen!"

Naruto's other hand tightened into a fist, his nails digging into his palm. "Let me guess, you're at Dusk2Dawn."

"Yeah, that! You know where it is?!"

He swore under his breath. Out of all the places for her to bring his siblings, it had to be _that_ abandoned convenience store. "Yes, I do. Just hang on, alright? I'll be there as soon as I can!"

"O-Okay!"

And with that, she cut the connection. Naruto shoved the phone into his pants pocket before hurriedly fishing out his car keys. He slid into his seat and slammed the door closed as he turned his truck on. It burst into life and immediately shot backwards, its tires squealing as it made a sharp turn out of the parking lot. The wind the speeding rust-coloured vehicle made as it drove off caused the note the teenaged Pines had dropped flutter in the air, its message facing the sky as it slowly hovered back down to the ground.

 _"Vest and Sweater have awoken the blue lights. – J."_

Naruto quickly drove through the streets, speed limits and new job be damned, internally happy that it was mostly deserted due to the moon now being high up in the sky. He gritted his teeth, his chakra beginning to pulsate out of him in small, short bursts. In a few minutes, he was there. He slammed his foot on the brakes, his car screeching to a halt. He grabbed something from underneath his seat before running out. He didn't bother to lock the vehicle, his eyes too focused on the damaged part of the fence's barbed wire. Sending chakra to his legs, he jumped over the fence, Kurama silently following his lead. He let in a deep breath and took his cap off before letting out an immense wave of energy, alerting the ghosts of his familiar presence, the yellow in his hair receding slightly at his hasty wastage of the power. Naruto waited until the building stopped flashing and walked up to the doors. He kicked them open with a chakra-coated foot, and narrowed his eye when he saw all the teens who were holding their heads in pain on the floor. He let out an agitated breath and turned to his fox companion.

"Bring Dipper and Mabel to the truck. Open the gates. I don't care if you slice the lock off with your claws if you have to." The unnaturally-sized fox nodded and used his tails to pick the twins up. The two snapped out of their daze when they realized that they were being lifted.

"W-What? Hey, put us down, K!" Mabel protested, shaking in his grasp. She and Dipper continued to wriggle until the girl's sentence was finally processed in their minds. "K?! Wait, if you're here, then…"

The two tentatively twisted their heads away from the canine. Sure enough, there he was. Their brother stood at the entrance of the abandoned store, his arms were crossed over his chest and his lone, visible azure eye portrayed his seriousness. They winced as he looked down at them with an expression that was both stern and slightly relieved.

"K, get them to the truck. You two, quiet." They stared at the ground and frowned, nodding sadly. Naruto's head then snapped to the group of teens who now stood in front of them, all still confused about what had just happened. "You lot have some explaining to do. None of you are leaving until I get answers."

Robbie snarled and clenched his fists. "What?! Who the heck do you think you are, huh? You don't have the power to keep us here. Besides, there's six of us and only one of you. We can take you on easily!"

His friends took a step back. They knew that once the stubborn guitarist was angry, it would take at least a couple of hours until he was calm. The eldest Pines child gritted his teeth and narrowed his eye challengingly at the angry teen. "You are welcome to try."

"GLADLY!" The emo let out a battle cry as he ran at the masked male with a fist cocked back, ignoring the cries to stop from Wendy, and surprisingly, Tambry and Thompson. Just as Robbie was about to strike, Naruto grabbed his fist with a hand while his other one clutched his assailant by the shirt, the appendage covered by a thin light-blue coat of energy. He threw the teen over his shoulder with ease, not bothering to turn and face the groaning male who was now on the ground.

"Anyone else want to give attacking me a try?" The others shook their heads furiously, not wanting to end up like the squirming Valentino. "Good. Now, anyone want to step up and tell me why you're all in a restricted area, with younger children nonetheless?"

Lee raised his arms up in surrender as he spoke. "Uh, not that I mean any disrespect or anything man, but who are you? Robbie was right about you not really having any authority over us."

Before Naruto could say anything, Wendy answered for him. "His name is N, N Pines. Mabel and Dipper's older brother."

The thin blonde froze and stared fearfully at the steely-eyed male. "Oh…"

"…Other than that, you can also call me Officer Pines. I'm a temporary police officer for the summer. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland find that keeping the law's hold on this town is hard to do on their own, and now I see why they say so." The group flinched when he showed them the badge in his hand, holding it out for them to see. "Now I'll ask again. Why are you all in a restricted and quarantined area? You better start speaking up. After all, I've got to write _something_ in my report on what happened throughout this ordeal."

Wendy's eyes widened and she immediately took a step forward, her hands making swinging motions as she shook her head negatively. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Report? Dude, N, please don't write us up! I know that we totally ransacked the place and that going here was a bad idea, but please man, don't say anything about this. Our parents would kill us!"

Naruto's eye thinned into a papercut slit. "As much as I do not want to do so, not only do I have a job to perform, but you also have to remember that you chose to bring _my_ younger brother and sister here, effectively getting them wrapped up in this whole situation."

"I'm sorry about that, okay? After you left the Shack, my shift was over and I was about to hang out with these guys when I saw just how sad they were about you not being able to spend time with them. I just wanted them to get their minds off of you and to have fun. I didn't know all that crazy stuff was going to happen!"

Naruto stared into Wendy's pleading forest-green orbs. He was silent as he tried to think of the right decision. The teens broke into private property, broke the intact belongings inside and put young children in danger all for the sake of having fun. If they hadn't been able to contact him, who knows what would've happened to the twins. Anger flared inside of him, but it was immediately quenched when the sight of his siblings' earlier dejected expressions briefly flashed into his thoughts. He tilted his head up and stared each individual teen present in the eye, his gaze making them flinch, before he turned back to Wendy. He gritted his teeth, his eyebrow giving a slight twitch as he clenched his fist in anger… before he letting out a deep breath.

"…Alright, alright. So from what I have seen here and heard from you witnesses, wild animals ran out of the forest and gave chase to you. You lot jumped the broken fence in order to get away, only for them to snap the lock with brute force-" He pointed to the shredded lock and the slightly open gate behind him. "-and wreaked havoc inside the abandoned shop as you clambered inside using the rooftop for safety. Is that right?"

Wendy beamed and wrapped him up in a hug. "YES! Thank you!"

The male froze at the contact and slowly wrapped his arms around her in response, patting her a few times on the back before she pulled away. "O-Okay then. Well, you guys better get outta here. It's getting late. And remember, this is a one-time thing. The next time I see you guys causing trouble, I won't let it slide."

They all nodded, even the recovered Robbie, before sprinting past him and sliding through the gates. He smiled at the figures that materialized themselves in front of him and nodded in greeting.

 **"So, you're back, huh?"**

 **"Hm… Pa thought you wouldn't return."**

"To be honest, I thought I wouldn't come back either. I'm sorry about all this, and I'm sorry that I didn't give them an appropriate punishment…"

 **"Oh, it's alright. We have to apologize too. We didn't realize we had taken over your younger sibling, lad."**

 **"Besides, you never could say no to that girl. Isn't that right, dearie?"**

Naruto flinched, his face gaining a red hue under his mask. "W-Well, I'd love to stay so that I can catch up with you guys, but I have to go. I need to take my little brother and sister home."

 **"Oh, alright… at a later date then."**

 **"But please do come back as soon as possible. We've got ten years of teasing to catch up on."**

"Ha ha, I will. I promise."

With that, he made his way back to his truck, chuckling slightly as he saw the teens drive off as fast as possible in the blue van and hopefully back to their homes. He spotted his siblings leaning against his truck out of the corner of his eye and let out a sigh. He walked up to them and stared at them impassively. A few minutes of silence passed and Dipper was the first of the three humans to speak.

"N, are… are you mad at us?"

The spiky-haired Pines sucked in a breath and closed his eyes. "No, no. Not mad. Disappointed."

The twins winced. Disappointment was definitely much more of a heavy-hitter than anger.

"We just wanted to hang out with other teenagers…" Mabel said quietly, her gaze staying on the concrete pavement beneath them.

"Yeah… I know you did." A few more tense minutes passed. Naruto kept his eye on his siblings, his tall figure making the twins feel small. Seeing them wince, he sighed. "You guys really had me worried there… you got me scared."

That got them to raise their heads. There had been a few times that they'd seen him slightly frightened, but scared? "Really?"

"Heh, yeah. I thought you guys would just be lazing around back at the Mystery Shack with Grunkle Stan, but then I suddenly just get a phone call from a frenzied Wendy saying that you guys were in trouble. Nearly gave me a heart-attack, I tell ya." He knelt down and stared both of them in the eye. "Look, I know that I'm not able to spend as much time as I would want to with you guys and that you came here to have fun, but… hanging out with Wendy and her friends seems a bit dangerous-"

Dipper gained a worried look in his chocolate irises. "You're not banning us from having fun with them, are you?"

"No, no. I'm not gonna say that I forbid you from hanging out with those other guys. While what those six have done today endangered you, it isn't really much different from what we did back home in Piedmont, huh?" The two let out laughs, making him give an eye smile. "But here's the thing. The only difference between this summer and the past ones is that I'm not gonna be able to always be around in order keep an eye on you two, and that fact when combined with what just happened here scares me. You guys are family, and I would do anything to keep you guys safe. Normally, after a situation like this, I would put you guys on lockdown back at the Shack, not able to leave without an escort. But… that's unfair to you guys, since it was technically my fault you went here. After all, I promised that I'd spend the summer with you, but right now it seems like I'm not doing so good on that one. So, because of that, I'm going to make a difficult decision. I'm going to give you guys each a task."

The twins looked at him confusedly. "Huh?"

"Yep, that's right, a task. And that task is that you two keep an eye on each other's backs, got it? I know that you already do that, but I want you to be extra careful. I don't know what happened in that store before I arrived-"

 _ **"Liar."**_

 _"Shut it."_

"-but I know that it definitely wasn't animals that did the damage. So I'm putting a lot of my trust on you guys here, alright? Promise me that you'll always have each other's backs."

They nodded and smiled up at him. Mabel then rubbed her arm nervously. "Um… awkward sibling hug?"

Naruto guffawed and spread his arms out wide. "Nope. Big brother bear hug!"

He wrapped his little brother and sister in his arms and lifted them up, squeezing them tightly as they playfully yelled out protests, Kurama smirking at the scene from the back of the car.

"Now let's go home, before it's Grunkle Stan's turn to get a heart attack."

* * *

 **Crazy7634: Please note that when A1Z26 cipher is used, the number behind the bracket is not to be decoded.**

15.) 19-8-15-21-12-4 20-8-9-19 8-1-16-16-5-14, 11-5-5-16 20-8-15-19-5 3-12-15-19-5 20-15 25-15-21 19-1-6-5 1-14-4 14-5-1-18,  
9-6 14-15-20, 20-8-5-14 25-15-21 13-1-25 12-15-19-5 20-8-5-13 20-15 5-22-5-18-25-20-8-9-14-7 25-15-21 6-5-1-18.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, it's Crazy7634 here! Sorry about the** _ **really**_ **late update, but again, a shit ton of stuff happened. Sooo, other than school and week after week of important tests, I had to book and go to several appointments. Dentist, orthodontist, optometrist, doctor… yeaaah. Even my holiday days didn't help. I had to prepare a speech and draw a shit ton of pages for graphics class. Welp, that's enough of my ramblings, 'cuz I know that I've held this off long enough already. To make it up to you guys, I originally wanted to make this chapter at** _ **least**_ **12k+… aaand now it's 16k+. If it seems rushed, then I apologize, but I didn't exactly have much free time. If you guys spot any inconsistencies or errors, please do tell me. Now, without further ado, I introduce to you the fifth chapter of… Gravity Falls: Legend of the Nine-Tailed Guardian!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, especially Naruto and Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Chapter 5 – Beasts of Man

[In The Forest]

Frantic steps were heard in the dense, moss-coloured forest as a shadowy figure rushed past the trees. His eyes were panicked and his breathing laboured as he made his way towards civilization. Strands of his silver hair clung to his skin as beads of sweat slid down his furrowed brow, pants escaping his parted lips. His ears twitched slightly at the sound of a dead branch snapping a few meters behind him, the noise making him flinch and widen his eyes, eyebrows raised in surprise. Hearing footsteps growing closer, he twisted his head to look behind him and squinted, scanning the area behind him for the source. Once he saw a faint figure appear in the darkness of the thick foliage, he gritted his teeth and gripped the objects in his hands tighter as he quickened his pace.

"GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!"

His body tensed at the furious roar, glancing quickly at the fleeing wildlife that had no doubt sensed the hostility the mysterious character was emitting. His head then snapped to a tree, staring at the trunk where he could've sworn he spotted a tiny foot disappear behind, before he shook his head to put his focus back in place. He desperately kept his eyes forward, forcing them to look ahead in an attempt to ignore not only the distractions, but also the enraged presence that was growing closer to his location.

"Come on, legs… don't fail me _now_!"The man muttered desperately, his gaze stuck on his aching knees, the sound of his pounding heart filling his ears. He craned his head upwards, pleading cocoa irises fixated on the trees farthest away from his vision. "How far into this god damn forest are we?!"

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

The male jumped at the livid cry, a yelp escaping his throat. He looked back to check on his pursuer, a choice he instantly regretted once his eyes connected with the crazed cerulean of the figure catapulting from tree to tree, barely managing to stop himself from cursing once he noticed that the other male was closing in on his trail. "FU- UHH… H-HOT BELGIAN WAFFLES!"

His breath hitched in his throat and his legs became blurs, his fear of being caught sending doses of adrenaline rushing through his veins. As he hurriedly sprinted through bushes, light hit his sensitive eyes, causing him to wince before he perked up in realization. Hope sparked in his being as the sight of the light signalling the end of the forest line finally appeared.

"Wait, slow down you two!" Another male groaned, weariness clear in his voice.

The chased man didn't care however, a happy and partially triumphant smile was stretched on his face. He knew that they were too late, he was already at his destination. He leapt out of the treeline, his vision filled with pure white as he rocketed into the clearing before him…

* * *

[At Greasy's Diner]

"…Where the heck are they?!"

Dipper raised his left arm up and stared at the watch attached to its wrist, his head laying limply on their table as an eye twitched in his impatience. Mabel, who was sitting to his right, gave him a shaky smile, her eyes following his right hand's movements as its fingers drummed against the table top impatiently. After a few seconds she shook her head out of her slight trance and held her hands out in a pacifying gesture.

"Hey, hey, calm down Dip. I'm sure they'll be here soon-"

The irked boy sat up straight, his voice cutting his sister off.

"-Calm down? I can't just calm down! First, Grunkle Stan and N banned us from going out of the Shack for days, and now they just ran off hours ago and left us to take care of the shop since Wendy and Soos' shifts still haven't started. They told us to lock up at around about seven-thirty before coming here to Greasy's Diner for breakfast, saying that they'd be here by then. We're finally out of that boring sham exhibit for the first time in days, it's eight o'clock and they still aren't here!" He huffed and fell back into his seat, a scowl on his face.

Mabel raised an eyebrow, her arms folded in front of her chest as she sent him an amused smirk. "You're just ticked off 'cuz they didn't tell you why they left, aren't-cha?"

Dipper's eye twitched again, confirming her accusation.

"Of course I am! They kept dodging my questions until they decided to just sprint away instead of answering, slamming the door behind them. Why couldn't they just tell us? Are they harbouring some sort of guardian of the forest? Are they hiding a source of unimaginable power? What the heck is taking them so long to get here anyway?! Are they being hunted by a vicious creature- O-Or maybe by some hybrid monster?" As he continued to speak, Dipper's voice became more frenzied and his eye-twitching more erratic. His hands gripped the sides of his head tightly, his eyes glaring holes into the floor beneath his feet in his slight-insanity. "AAAGH! All this waiting is killing me!"

His twin merely responded with a giggle, a hand patting the grumbling young teen's back comfortingly. "There, there, bro-bro. Just take a couple of deep breaths, you know how hunger gets to ya. I'm sure they have a good reason about why they left and why they're late. We've just gotta be patient right now."

Hearing a feminine chuckle, the twins looked up and turned to the origin of the sound. They blinked up, questioning stares set on the redhead towering above them. Wiping an invisible tear from under her eye, she gave the Pines twins a cheerful grin.

"Haha… Dipper's hungry, huh?" The Corduroy and the sweater-loving twin shared nods of understanding, much to the annoyance of the teen in question, his mumbling only making the other two more amused. "Heh, I kinda figured. Well anyway, how come you guys aren't eating? You waiting for someone?"

Mabel giggled again when Dipper's grumbling grew a bit louder before smiling up at Wendy. "We're waiting for Grunkle Stan and N. But, as you can see from Dip over here, they aren't here yet."

"Ah… you guys are waiting for family too, eh?"

Dipper stopped grumbling and looked up at Wendy curiously. "Huh? You're waiting for someone too?"

She nodded, a small smile on her face. "Yep. I was supposed to have breakfast here with my dad, but he isn't here yet either. I'd go home and eat, but breakfast here at Greasy's is kinda a bonding thing for me and him."

"Alright… but why don't you just buy some food yourself, you know, so you can have a snack while you're waiting? Didn't Grunkle Stan give you your weekly pay a couple days ago?"

"Well, I'd like to buddy, but I didn't bring any money here." The lumberjack's daughter scratched her cheek sheepishly, her other hand tucked inside a pants pocket. "My dad's the one who was supposed to pay for the both of us."

Dipper grew a smirk, letting out a short laugh. "I guess you really are on the same boat as us. We didn't bring any money either. N's the one in charge of keeping tabs on the allowance our parents gave to us for the summer."

Mabel's stomach let out a growl of hunger, causing the girl to smack her head against the table. "Ugh… screw being patient, I'm so hungry! I wish Grunkle Stan and N would just get here already, 'cuz I don't know how long it'll take 'till that guy notices that we locked him in the building."

"Wait… what?" Wendy asked, a confused expression on her face. Dipper hurriedly covered Mabel's mouth with his hands, giving the eighteen-year-old a wavy smile as he laughed nervously.

"Uh- Urm… nothing! You heard nothing." Seeing Wendy send him a suspicious look, he dug through his panicked mind for a different conversation topic. "W-Well, anyway, is- uh… is there a way to get food for free?"

When the flannel-clad teen tilted her head upwards, a thoughtful look on her face, Dipper twisted his head to face Mabel, a finger on his lips as he silently told her to shush. When they heard her snap her fingers in recognition, they flinched and quickly turned to face her, attempting to set up inconspicuous façades.

"Actually…" Wendy started, catching the twins' attention. She pointed a finger to one of the diner's walls, the appendage directing their eyes to the dusty machine placed against it. "You _can_ get pancakes without paying, but you'd have to beat that arm-wrestling machine over there."

The machine itself was mostly a large, worn, red rectangular box. It had a handle and a coin slot at the front of its slightly extended bottom half, while the flat top half was a gauge with multiple different levels. At the top was a carved torso, head, and arms of a moustached and muscular man that held up a sign saying "Test Your Manliness". Dipper raised an eyebrow, the cogs in his mind now turning properly at the prospect of curing his hunger. Mabel saw him raise a hand to his chin in thought and cocked her head to the side.

"…What are you thinking about?" Her twin tensed and shook himself out of his thoughts, looking at her with a torn expression, hesitating to speak. His reluctance only caused her curiosity to rise. "What?"

He weighed the pros and cons in his mind before relenting with a sigh. "Well… I was thinking that I'd go and try it."

She blinked in surprise at his response. During the years she had grown up with him, her youngest brother had usually distanced himself from most things that required athleticism, gravitating more towards academic subjects. He'd excel in mathematics, science and the like, but when it came to physical education, he'd usually shy away or try to be invisible, something that always confused her and their older brother. Although her twin wasn't exactly good at things such as sports, he wasn't bad either. Then again, it might've been because of the more… unsavoury, kind of students who're always apparent in any school. She frowned before shaking the thoughts and bad memories out of her head. There was no need to bring up the past. After all, nothing good ever came from picking at scabs. She felt her twin's inquisitive stare on her and merely gave him a smile. There was no harm in trying new things, so why not encourage him, right?

"If that's what you want to do Dip, then go ahead. It wouldn't hurt to try."

Her brother's unsure stare turned into an excited smile. Mabel heard Wendy chuckle as the redhead gave him a pat on the head.

"Go on dude, give it a shot." She sent him a supportive grin, filling him with hope.

The young boy nodded and hopped off of his seat and ran to the machine, fishing out a coin from his pocket. He pushed it into the slot and listened as he heard the coin drop into the machine's storage. He took a deep breath, sweat beginning to accumulate on his palms. He shakily raised his right hand and wrapped it around the handle, gnashing his teeth nervously. He looked back to where Wendy and Mabel were, beaming with happiness when he saw them both send him encouraging thumbs-ups. He steeled his resolve and turned back to the machine, a determined twinkle in his eyes. He tightened his grip and began to push the handle to the side, his eyes narrowing and teeth gritting in concentration. His left hand tightened itself into a fist in his frustration as he put as much strength as he could into making the handle budge. His eyelids clenched themselves closed, his ears twitching slightly as the sound of the gauge reaching a higher level reached his ears. He tensed when he felt his arm's power begin to waver and tried to put more force into his push. A few more tense seconds passed and he finally let go, his right arm slightly limp after the whole ordeal. His eyes fixed themselves on the machine's light as it wavered at the "Manly Man" result, silently begging for it not to fall. When the light began to descend, he winced in disappointment and hung his head when it let out a ding at "Barely Passable". He saw a tattered black card slide out from a thin vertical slot and picked it up, reading the rust-coloured lettering printed on it.

[YOU ARE A _PATHETIC_ LI'L HUMAN]

Dipper sighed, slouching forward, depressed. He trudged over to Wendy and Mabel in defeat, his hand shoving the card into a pocket while the other ran itself through the chocolate hair under his cap. Once he reached their table, he plopped down on the seat, the two females giving him sad, sympathetic smiles.

"Hey, it's alright buddy…" Wendy began, kneeling down slightly to talk to the dejected Pines face-to-face. "That thing hasn't been used in years, most of the stuff it has inside is probably rusted and stuck by now."

"Yeah, Dip. You did good. That thing's probably just really busted." Mabel continued cheerfully, happiness shining in her eyes when she saw her brother begin to sit up.

He smiled at them appreciatively, some of his sadness having been lifted away by their words. "Heheh, thanks guys. I-"

He was cut off, however, when the door beside the manliness tester slammed open. All eyes were drawn to the noise and were immediately confused when they saw a silver-haired man shoot into the diner, the strange character landing with his back on the floor. Mabel squinted, curiously taking a closer look at the man. She looked at the figure's familiar hair before moving on to the nose. She gasped lightly as the realization of his identity suddenly struck her.

"Grunkle Stan?!"

Dipper and Wendy turned to her with incredulous faces while Stan himself gave her a somewhat relieved look.

"Kids, Wendy! Oh, thank god you brats are here. Now, help me calm _him_ down!"

They shot him questioning stares, not quite understanding his order, their confusion only growing when they noted his current state. The old codger was fatigued, as seen through his panting and sweating. He was only wearing his belted pants and shoes. His shirt was also missing, showing the lazy great-uncle's surprisingly muscled torso, much to the delight of the older females currently in the diner. When he used an arm to push himself up and face them, they noticed that he was clutching a black shirt along with a white, long-sleeved one in his other arm. After a minute, the three then pulled themselves out of their musings with Dipper asking him the silent questions floating in their minds.

"W-Wait, what are you talking about? Calm WHO down? And why the heck aren't you wearing your shirt?!"

"Long story. I'll tell you later, but first you need to calm- Ack!" Stan stopped mid-sentence, his neck snapping to the side when he saw movement in his peripheral vision. "Ooh, boy. Too late!"

"END OF THE LINE, YOU MISER!" At the angry bellow, Stan rolled forward, managing to dodge the golden blur that barrelled through the door. The newcomer immediately pushed himself up, glaring heatedly at the old man. The scam artist's assailant's azure eye blazed with fury, a low growl emanating from his throat. "Give me back my damn shirt and necklace, Stan!"

The twins immediately recognized the voice to be their older brother N's and blinked in surprise when they saw that he, too, was shirtless. Sweat was dripping down his golden hair, some locks sticking to the side of his head. More moisture slid down his chest, many sets of eyes, a certain pair of forest-coloured orbs among them, following their trail. Hearing a shuffling sound coming from beside them, the twins turned to Wendy and shared knowing smirks when they spotted the reddish hue she had on her cheeks as she attempted to look at anywhere but the scene in front of her. Mabel stood up and poked the older teen on the side, getting her attention.

"Enjoying the view, Wendy?" She giggled, raising her eyebrows cheekily. The Corduroy's blush became more prominent as she punched the other girl lightly on the shoulder in her embarrassment.

"S-Shut up…"

Although the two youngest Pines were busy laughing, much to their redheaded friend's chagrin, Naruto remained oblivious, his vision fixated on the shirts Stan currently held in his left arm. He launched forward with a hand outstretched, intending to grab the precious object trapped inside the ball of clothing. Stan, who was also chuckling in amusement at Wendy's face, let out a yell of surprise as he pivoted away from his eldest great-nephew, the teen clicking his tongue as he quickly regained his balance. He kicked off of the ground and nimbly spun to look at his uncle, not noticing that he had elbowed the manliness tester's handle past its limit. A boom resounded throughout the eatery, Naruto wincing when he realized that it had come from behind him. Reluctantly, he craned his neck to face the machine behind him, cringing at the sight of the crimson box's smoking remains. Seeing movement, he looked up and recoiled in shock when he spotted the circular shape making its way towards his skull. He nabbed it from the air before it hit the ground and twisted the strange object around, nearly squawking in astonishment when the item revealed to be the carved muscular man's charred head.

" _Ahem_." Hearing the cough, and already knowing who it was, he reluctantly turned to confront the person. He gave a sheepish eye-smile, nervously chuckling as the irate woman tapped her foot against the wooden floorboards. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her pink uniform and stained apron rustling as she did so. Her pursed lips and narrowed eye made Naruto fidget, his gaze trying to focus on the grey strands of hair framing her face rather than her stern eyes. "…Well?"

"I, uh… D-Did you get a haircut recently? Because I _must_ say, it looks GREAT on you!" The blonde gave her a shaky eye-smile, an action which failed to soften the woman's serious glare. After a few minutes, he sighed in resignation and held the burnt wooden head out for her to take. "Ah… Sorry, Lazy Susan. I- I didn't mean to break the thing. I don't have the money on me at the moment, but I'll pay for the damages later, I promise."

She raised an eyebrow at his apology, staring in silence for a few more moments. Seeing genuine guilt in his eye, a small smile appeared in place of her frown and she nodded in approval. "Alright, N, you're forgiven. But remember, you're not fully off the hook. I'll be holding you to that promise."

The teen let relief flood into his system, dipping his head in acceptance as the waitress took the offered scorched head off of his hands. "Thanks Lazy Susan. And don't worry, I'll pay ya later, honest."

"That, I know. You always were one for never breaking yer promises, weren't-cha?" She sent him a smirk, though it seemed a bit more nostalgic than amused, and went back to the customer she had been tending to before the whole exploding-free-pancake-game situation, no one noticing the flinch a certain redhead gave at her words.

A frown curled itself on her freckled face, lips pursed in thought and confusion. _'Why does that sound so familiar?'_

As he watched her walk off, he let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, a melancholic smile underneath his mask. Being scolded by the gray-haired woman sent jolts of nostalgia through his system, the situation reminding him of when he himself was no taller than the diner's tables. Soon enough though, his smile turned sad.

 _'Hah, "never break promises".'_ He let out a low empty chuckle in his mind. _'Easier said than done. I guess naivety really did affect my younger self quite a lot… it's either that, or… well, you know what they say. "Old habits die hard", I suppose.'_

Sensing someone moving to his side, he forced himself back out of memory lane and turned to the closing figure. Seeing Stan, he raised an eyebrow, pupils peering at the bundled shirt he was offering for him to take. He looked at his great-uncle's face, scrutinizing his sheepish and apologizing grin, silently asking for a truce.

The blonde kept quiet, staring at the older Pines before him, the aged man shifting under his nephew's gaze. Moments went by, the air surrounding the two males tense, until Naruto finally forced his head into a nod, accepting. Swiping his shirt out of the man's hands, he immediately felt the ball for his necklace before shoving it into his pants pocket, the glint it gave off in the second it was exposed to the sunlight catching the attention of a pair of bright jade eyes.

They narrowed as the two pulled their shirts back on, lingering on the bump the unknown object made in the other teen's pants pocket until the loud thumping of another person entering the diner made them look away. At seeing the new arrival, the eyes widened, their owner letting out a gasp. "Dad?!"

At hearing the redhead's breath hitching in her throat, the Pines family had turned to Wendy before moving their attention on to the girl's father at her shout. A burly man was stationed in the doorway, hunched over with a hand on his chest. His breathing was ragged as one of his brown-gloved hands struck his chest as he tried to calm his panicking heart.

The sight of the out-of-breath lumberjack evoked different reactions from the small group. Wendy ran to her father's aid, patting his back in an attempt to soothe him. Naruto and Stan just stared, sharing guilt-ridden expressions as they both realized that they had forgotten all about the heavyweight man, who was currently trying to recover from keeping up with their antics. While this all occurred, the Pines twins merely cocked their heads to the side wearing wondrous looks as they both observed, mentally listing the similarities the two individuals had. Tall, red-haired, plus lumberjack-esque clothing… yep. They definitely seemed to be related. Wendy helped her father stand up straight, a hand on his back while the other pushed his chest upwards slowly. The bearded man gave her a thankful smile before gesturing that he was fine, making Wendy sigh in relief as he glared at the two sheepish Pines in front of him.

"You idiots still don't know how to slow down." He grumbled, an unamused look on his face. The duo just stuck their tongues out and lightly bopped the side of their heads with a fist. Manly Dan shook his head, a fond smile now on his face. "Well, as annoying as it is, it's nice to know that some things just never change."

Stan grinned.

"Hah! Being troublesome is a job we were born with. So yeah, no shi-!" He stopped mid-sentence. His face scrunched in pain, his mind remembering that there were children around as his blonde great-nephew elbowed him in the side. "-izz! N… No shizz."

"Damn it, Stan!" Naruto hissed while Dan shook his head exasperatedly, the grunkle's cheeks beginning to flush in embarrassment.

"What? It's been years since the last time I've had to watch what I'm saying, alright?!" The old man huffed, sending a pointed stare at the blonde. "Besides, didn't ya hear what you JUST said, Mr. Hypocrite?"

"I can't seem to recall if there was anything negative about what I just said."

"Whaddya mean?! You said DAMN!"

"Yes, I said dam. As in dam your mouth before more obscenities manage to escape the _iron grip_ you have on your words."

Naruto's response dripped with sarcasm, a fact that didn't escape Stanley's ears, the teen's reply only making him more worked up. "Why you little-!"

Naruto smirked at his red-faced Uncle, whose face only seemed to turn even more crimson at the realization that their lumberjack companion was trying, and failing, to stifle his laughter. Angered dirt-coloured eyes stared into mirthful cerulean, attempting to silently force the other set to back down. The "fight" didn't last long however, as soon enough, they joined their red-haired friend in roaring in mirth at the sheer idiocy of their argument.

The other three in their group of six looked on confusedly at their showing of camaraderie, none of them expecting that the guffawing males had some sort of friendship, a close one at that. Having had enough of being in the dark, Wendy spoke up, turning to her father.

"…Dad, I didn't know you were friends with Stan? Since when was that a thing?"

The trio slowed their laughter, turning them into soft chuckles before they disappeared completely. They wiped tiny prickles of tears from their eyes, the only parent among them smiling as he answered his daughter.

"Yeah, I'm friends with this old con-man. I have been for years." He gave her a grin and smacked Stan on the back, making the senior citizen stumble and send him a harsh glare, one that was promptly ignored. "As problematic as this grey-haired bastard is, he's a good friend, if you can believe it."

Wendy could only watch as her boss punched her father in the arm, an action the taller man reciprocated. Stan's wince and twitch of pain had snickers erupting from the chests of Naruto and Dan once again, getting him to snarl and stare at the floorboards childishly with a pout. Seeing her employer stray away from his usual uncaring persona took Wendy aback. She chose to put her surprise into a corner of her mind before re-focusing on interrogating her father.

"…Okay. Well, then- then how come you never told me about it?"

Dan raised an eyebrow at his eldest child, a mischievous smirk on his face. "You never asked."

She looked at him with an incredulous face. "How was I supposed to ask when you didn't tell- didn't even give a clue- I mean- Gah!"

The bearded lumberjack chuckled at Wendy's uncharacteristic babbling, happy that at least some things managed to pierce through her aloofness.

"Other than people not exactly wanting to work for a well-known criminal-" He placed a hand on Stan's shoulder, chuckling again at the man's dirty look. "-why else do you think you still have your job at the Shack, even though most of your time is spent slacking?"

The girl didn't have a response to that and kept silent. Though, despite her silence, the male's interrogation wasn't done. Mabel stepped forward with a question that had been bugging her, Dipper, and unknowingly, Wendy.

"Uh, okay. Mabel here. Sorry if I'm interrupting, but…" She pointed a finger at Manly Dan, a head leaning to the side, confusion swimming in her eyes. "…who are you and how the heck do you know N? I mean, we know that you're Wendy's dad, but, ya know…"

Her voice trailed off. Three sets of inquisitive stares were placed on the stocky Corduroy, the man discretely sending a glance towards Naruto's way, the blonde giving him a subtle nod of approval. He dipped his head slightly as well, but unfortunately, it didn't go as unseen as the Pines'. The younger pair of cinnamon eyes that were set on his head narrowed in suspicion, trailing back and forth between Dan and his brother, who he'd realized was the person the lumberjack was silently communicating with. Dan noticed the change in his stare and didn't speak anything of it, preferring to make a mental note of it instead as he made a smile slide across his face.

"This brat? Hah! I've known him since he was no bigger than my shins!" He turned to Naruto with a fake inspecting look. "But even though it _has_ been years since I last saw this damnable punk, I can't seem to find any change in him at all!"

The masked Pines' eye twitched, cerulean orb showing how miffed he was. "Ha, Ha. Very funny. Now shaddup, I wanna eat."

"Well, I suppose we could… if the widdle boy's tummy wants num-nums."

This gained the redhead another twitch. The tattooed male clenched his fists and gave an agitated sigh, but rather than acting on his exasperation, he chose to move to take a seat in the booth Mabel and Dipper had been saving for them. Dan and Stan chortled as they followed his example, the Corduroy grabbing two stray chairs and before he placed them beside the Pines' table. Wendy and the twins followed their example, the females still wearing confused expressions while Dipper had a calculating one. As they were about to wave a passing waitress down, Lazy Susan walked up and placed a tall stack of pancakes on their table. Naruto blinked and turned to Susan questioningly.

"Uh… what's all this?"

"Even if you _did_ explode the machine," She gave him a playful glare as he scratched his head sheepishly. "I suppose since it was by pushing it past its limit that it counts as beating that old thing, and beating it means free pancakes."

"But-" She held a hand up, already knowing he was going to protest.

"No buts, mister. Besides…" She gave him a motherly smile. "…just think of it as a "Welcome Back" gift, alright? It's been a while since you've last been here."

He stared at Lazy Susan in the eye, searching for any sign of uncertainty. Seeing that she defiantly held his gaze in response, he relented and bobbed his head thankfully. "Fine, you win. Thank you, Lazy Susan."

"No problem. Now you rascals just sit tight, I'll go get some more plates and stuff, 'kay?"

"Sure! Thanks again."

When Naruto went to face the occupants of the table once more, he was surprised to see that his younger brother had a downcast expression on his face while his sister and Wendy gave him sympathetic smiles. He directed his puzzled eyes to the two adults at their table, using small, quick jerks of his head to gesture towards his brother. They followed his gaze and found that they were as clueless as he was.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, bro-bro. Didja see how that thing exploded? The handle was probably stuck on something, the tiny push N accidentally gave it finished the thing off and it ended up exploding. It was just bound to happen sooner or later." Mabel grew even more concerned after seeing no change on his face and she searched the area for _anything_ that could help her cheer her twin up. A rusted cog beneath her feet caught her eye and she immediately snatched it from the ground, presenting it to Dipper. "See? Look how busted up the inside of it was!"

Dipper gave it a quick glance before forcing a smile, but everyone could tell it was fake.

"Yeah, I guess it _was_ pretty busted. Thanks for cheering me up, Mabel. I…" He fished the black card out of his pocket, holding it on the table sadly. "…I'm sure I'll beat it next time."

The three older males flinched at the sight of the familiar object, the two eldest turning to the younger one as he stared at the old piece of laminated paper with phantom fury. So many emotions swam within his eye that it became an unreadable mess. He silently took a deep breath, steeled iris turning to the other two, his eye's narrowing conveying a silent message. They understood and nodded, the three then turning back to the depressed boy. Noticing that a certain waitress was making her way back to the table, Naruto took it as a chance to change the subject, hastily screwing a faltering grin underneath his mask.

"Now, now. Let's just put our troubling thoughts away for the time being. Lazy Susan's back, and these pancakes aren't going to eat themselves, now are they?"

While his words seemed to work and managed to distract the others, Dan and Stan couldn't help but wonder whether Naruto's words were meant to comfort the worried trio… or the blonde himself.

* * *

[Timeskip]

[With Dipper]

The young boy sighed, his hands shoved into his shorts' pockets. He trudged through the forest, eyes set on the rocky, dirt ground. He lifted a hand up and ran it through the cinnamon hair covered by his signature cap, a contemplating frown on his face. It had been hours since breakfast at Greasy's Diner. After Lazy Susan dropped the extra plates and forks off, the rest of the morning was spent sharing stories and joking around while the three eldest males of the group threw barbs at each other. But as normal as his morning sounded, there were just some things that Dipper couldn't understand. The way his uncle, brother and Wendy's father acted with each other was just so… _familiarly_. As if they'd known each other for years. Yet, considering how N had revealed before that he had gone to Gravity Falls for four summers of his younger life, such an assumption could be acceptable. But there was just _something_ about them that made the voice in his mind alarmed. They just seemed as if they were a little _too_ familiar for his liking, it was like as if they trusted each other completely; as if they had been some sort of group of their own. The way they talked, they laughed and joked… it reminded him of when his father had let him tag along when he was attending a get-together with his old friends. He remembered how happily they reacquainted, the way they referenced old inside jokes… how they shared old _secrets_.

Dipper clenched his hand around his hair tightly, his frown deepening.

He felt his annoyance bubble angrily in his chest. He didn't know why, or what, but he felt as if he was missing something. Like the puzzle he was attempting to solve still had blank spaces.

 _Too many_ blank spaces.

The thirteen-year-old didn't like this feeling. It was the same feeling he would get when someone would say they had a secret right to his face, and yet not tell him what it was. The nagging feeling of curiosity of the unknown.

It was aggravating.

Another sigh escaped his lips, his grip on his lock of hair loosening. Dipper pursed his lips, eyes narrowing. As much as he wanted to say that he knew how his older brother was and that the teen rarely kept secrets from him and Mabel, he knew that it would be foolish to believe such a thing. Throughout their lives, despite being as close as thieves, his brother was still an enigma to him, Mabel, and even their own parents.

Heck, he didn't even know that the guy had spent summers here at Gravity Falls until a day or so ago! Now that he thought about it, he barely knew anything from when he was younger… not like they ever really spoke about the past. That is, until the moment before he had left the shack earlier.

But even after that… chat. As much as Dipper wouldn't have wanted to admit it, his older brother was still shrouded in many secrets, a fact that made him wince. But secrets or no, he knew he'd always look up to him. Not that he'd have any other choice anyway, considering the height difference. The young teen bit his lip, his aching knees giving a pulse to notify him of their state. He spotted a log nearby and sat down, taking the cap off of his head, letting it hang limply from his fingers as he kept his head tilted down down.

The older teen always had been better at everything than him. Athletics, academics, creativity… you name it, he had it. Their parents had even joked that the twins were two halves split from a whole, Mabel getting their brother's creativity, him getting the intelligence and both sharing his athleticism.

Dipper scoffed.

Mabel definitely got his creativity and athleticism was evident in her. But him? Hah. His noodle arms were proof of his lack of skill in things such as sports, and his intellect was nothing compared to N's…

He gritted his teeth in anger before taking a deep, calming breath. Sadly, he pulled his other hand from his pocket, staring dejectedly at the card it held in its fingers. His brain seemed to jolt, as it flashed the memory that of the talk he had with N just before he had left for the woods.

* * *

[Flashback]

"Yeah, I'm just gonna go for a walk, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper yelled, turning back to face his supposed guardian for the summer.

The old man rolled his eyes waved his great-nephew off. "Whatever, brat. Just don't get yourself killed."

"Sure."

Dipper shook his head as he walked out, a small smile on his face at his uncle's words. However, it disappeared as soon as he glanced down at the thick, laminated paper in his hand, his other hand absentmindedly closing the door behind him. He stood on the porch, gaze glued on to the words printed on the old card. He bit his lip, his free hand clenching painfully into a fist at his side. He clenched his eyes shut, forcing his eyes to break their focus on the hurtful words.

 _'But it's true though, I really am pathetic…'_

He could feel the beginnings of tears escaping the sides of his eyelids and gritted his teeth in an attempt to keep them in, only for someone to snatch the card out of his grasp, his eyes snapping open in shock. He was surprised to see his older brother towering over him, the frown on his face at his teary-eyed look was visible, even with the mask. Dipper quickly wiped the tears off with his arm, not wanting to appear vulnerable in front of his eldest sibling. Naruto held the card up to his face, glaring at the rust-coloured words. He glanced back to his brother, watching him look down at his feet before turning his gaze back to the memento of the past.

 _'I knew I should have burnt this thing years ago. I just had to put it off and, in the end, forget where the hell I put it, didn't I?'_ He could feel his face forming snarl and forced himself to get a grip on his emotions. _'*sigh* …Then again, this_ could _be what the kid needs.'_

He steeled will and let an agitated breath flow out his throat before it had a chance to evolve into a growl. He placed a hand on his distressed brother's head, giving him a sympathetic smile.

"You know…" Dipper flinched and looked up at his brother's voice, finding comfort in the warmth in his azure eye and ruffle of his hair. "…you should really just leave these words of the past behind. They don't hold a single lick of truth to them. Well, this layer at least…"

The last sentence came out as a mumble, but it was still audible to the younger teen. He became confused, wondering what his brother meant before shaking his head, putting the thought to the back of his mind.

"But that's the thing, though! It's true! It's ALL TRUE!"

His brother merely raised an eyebrow. The action, unknown to the two Pines, causing a flare of anger to spark to life in Dipper's chest.

"Oh, and what makes you say that?"

Dipper let out a low growl at his brother's nonchalance, surprising both of them. But the boy stood his ground and continued on.

"What makes me say that?! I _am_ pathetic! Ever since we were younger, me and Mabel had been expected to follow in your footsteps. To be as _great_ or even GREATER than you were. I mean, everyone's always saying how amazing you are, how you were such a good child from the moment you were born up until now- how you're so smart and talented -and I can't blame them! Me and Mabel are always compared to you, and even Mom and Dad say that we're basically you but split in half! I can understand Mabel, she's fit and has your creativity in spades. ME? My grades are nothing compared to yours, and people were already asking you for advice when you were my age while people still brush me off as some sort of little kid! I can barely lift my own _chair_ off of the ground without struggling, while you're able to lift Kurama on a shoulder with ease! Just stop lying, you know I'm pathetic!"

Naruto stared silently at his indignant brother, concerned. _'Jeez, I knew the kid had doubts, but not to this extent…'_

"First off, I'm not lying. Second, even if I was, I wouldn't even know what I'd be lying about exactly. And third, you _aren't_ pathetic. You _are_ smart, and you're _not_ weak. You're-"

"What, I'm what?!"

Naruto sighed at being interrupted. He knelt down to his brother's height and ruffled his hair again comfortingly.

"You're underestimating yourself." That snapped Dipper out of his furious haze. The tears that had been teetering at the corners of his eyes finally fell when Naruto pulled his mask down, showing him an understanding smile. "The problem isn't that you feel like you're… _less,_ when compared to me. It's that you're comparing yourself to me in the first place. I'm five years older than you, brat. Of course I'm stronger. Give yourself time, you've just started puberty haven't you? At your age, no need to try and rush things. As for schoolwork when I was younger, that would be because I never had time for friends. Not that I made any in the first place. Because of that, I buried myself in my studies, and trust me, it's not the way I wanted you guys to live your childhood. Asking for advice? That would be because I had to grow up a little faster than most from my age group. You and a few other people should know a couple of reasons why, remember?"

Dipper nodded, tracing the straight, black lines on his cheeks somberly, wincing when he felt the jagged dips the dark marks hid. Naruto gave him a sad yet amused look before moving to stand up, grunting in strain.

"When we're still in our younger years, we practically _thrive_ on games, friendships, positive emotions and the like. My knowledge of the first was little to none, and the rest I rarely experienced. Especially when considering the fact that, from the moment I first interacted with others my age, I was always… _kindly reminded_ , that I was littl _er_ than little, had the head of a cactus, was a freaky cyclops and so on and so forth. Frankly, it kinda dents the trust a guy has on others doesn't it? Especially when their first impressions of society are filled with taunts and jeers."

He sighed, head angled to face the sky.

"No interacting with other kids seems to become a rule and most of the free time I got was spent burying my nose in books, learning more things; after all, it's not like I had anything better to do. I couldn't exactly change the way I looked. After all, I was born that way."

He threaded a hand through his untied, golden tresses, the action calming him slightly.

"But then, for some reason, they find choosing reading and learning as opposed to fun and games to be a negative thing, and more ridicule surges. Evasion and the art of being inconspicuous is then easily learnt, trust has taken a hit once more and nose is buried even deeper into a growing mountain of more books, mind set on gaining approval by changing something that c _ould_ be altered; which, at that point in time, the easiest would be knowledge. Unfortunately, that plan backfires. Apparently, being intelligent immediately negatively classifies you as a "nerd", which therefore gives you the additional title of "loser" with the bonus of more ridicule. Sound familiar, bud?"

Dipper refused to look his brother in the eye, preferring to instead glare at the floorboards. He gave a nod, knowing exactly how his brother had felt. He felt rage begin to simmer in his chest once more before forcefully supressing the emotion. He took a deep breath and spoke, grimacing when his voice gave a slight waver.

"…Y-Yeah. But, other than sending both of use through the _joyful_ rainbow ride through memory lane, is there a point to this story time?"

Naruto let out a bark of a hollow laugh at his sibling's show of sarcasm.

"Yes, actually."

Dipper raised an eyebrow in silent, sarcastic retort before rolling his hand and wrist in a "go on" gesture. Naruto shook his head in slight amusement, understanding his brother's wordless message. But despite seemingly being done with this conversation, he could see the interest in the boy's mud-brown eyes clear as day.

"Continuing 'story time', as you've called it… Well, one child's already limited patience could only take so much, especially when said child had other matters needing to be dealt with, other than annoying brats their age."

The blonde saw Dipper's other eyebrow arch in curiosity and quickly waved him off, the younger teen rolling his eyes at the action. By that movement alone, he knew his brother wouldn't say a single word more about it. Seeing his brother accept his dismissal, Naruto breathed an internal sigh of relief. The kid didn't need to know about scar-inducing nightmares anyway.

"Soon enough, I decided that I'd taken their mockery silently for too long and just… snapped. I gave up on trying to gain their approval and stopped taking things lying down. Got a problem with how I looked? Say that to my face and see how yours looks like afterwards. Think I'm too smart? Let's check in a couple of years and see which of us has a stable job and which of us is living on the streets. I'd just had enough of everyone by then and got stuck on the mindset that if they didn't like how I was, then screw them; they weren't worth my time."

Naruto sighed.

"But by the time I realized this, I was nearly too late. I'd spent so much time trying to gain the approval of strangers I didn't even know, that I could count the people I could actually consider as friends on one hand, and none of them were from Piedmont. I pulled my head out of the gutter and decided to live my life not caring about what others thought about me. I cut back on studying- although it undoubtedly made me quite intelligent, it also made me quite a recluse -a choice gave me a lot of free time and, at one point, I became a ticking time bomb."

At his brother's surprised look, the blonde nodded in response, confirming that he had indeed heard right.

"Not caring about the negative things other people thought of you is good, but ever since I had given up on trying to fit in, any insult that came at me just made me into a walking volcano. Every word pushing me one more step towards eruption. Soon enough, years of pent-up aggression exploded out of me at every sign of annoyance. I ended up in quite a bit of fights, with me coming out on top, though barely in some cases. Mom and Dad got worried, so did the school's councillor and principal. I had usually been seen as one of the silent and docile students, and the change surprised them. Mom and Dad got recommended that I should look into out-of-school activities that would help with releasing my… exuberance. It was either that or a therapist plus boring anger management, so I asked if I could start learning how to fight. Of course, being worrywarts, they said straight up no."

They shared a laugh, both having experienced their parents' overprotective tendencies.

"But, as you know, they eventually gave in, after I promised that I wouldn't be using what I learnt for anything other than self-defence and not to initiate fights. But, even though I already had that to help with cutting my energy down, I was still quite… hyper. Having something to do had been my coping mechanism for years, and old habits die hard. Since I had a lot of free time from slowing down studying, I started looking into the school's co-curricular activities, which, of course, got negative reactions from my peers. But hey, I just couldn't give a damn anymore. Hah! The looks on their faces when I showed up their useless asses. Bastards thought that just 'cuz I was smart that I couldn't ever be even a bit athletic."

"Climbed your way to the top?"

"Hell yeah, brat!"

His little brother gave a playful, childish pout when he smacked him on the back before it broke into a small smile that mirrored his own.

"No other way for a Pines to do it."

"Hahah, yeah… But thing is, Dipper. From that point onwards, I didn't care about what happened or what was in my way. I let any words they said flow past me, unacknowledged; but I kinda did it a little _too_ well. Back then, after my fuse ran out, I just floated through life. I closed myself off from anyone who wasn't already my friend or my family and focused on getting skilled. I didn't really care at what. I had so much free time, that I just always thought that no matter how skilled I get, I HAD to be _"better"_ … but it was always never enough to me, and no matter how many things I learnt, I still felt that I was missing something."

"...Aaand that was?"

"Friendship." Seeing the brunette's deadpan stare at his cliché response, Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, I know, right? But hey, after spending most of the years you'd have lived back then alone, it kinda gets boring without other people. Heck, I'd closed myself up to others so much and was so prone to exploding, that my title changed from "Stringy Nerd" to "Anger Needing Management". But, despite still being quite explosive and, regrettably, slightly emo-ish, the truth was that I craved companionship. To be able to let my guards down and to be able to freely be… well, me. So, I chose to loosen up a bit; and, with the help of the friends I already had here in Gravity Falls, I managed to do it. It took a while, but I got myself to start trusting others again and began to open up… after all, I knew that there were others a lot worse off than me. Time passed, I slowly began to become as "normal" as I could get, and here we are."

He placed a hand on Dipper's head and leaned down to stare him in the eye.

"Look, Dip. People may say I am great, some may compare, whether in a joking way or not. But I am the way I am because of how I grew up, or, more like, what I'd experienced while I was growing up. I barely managed to save myself by a thread, and looking back, there were so many things I wish I could've done but ended up missing. And so, because of that, when I first heard about my troublesome little siblings, I knew what I wanted to do. What I _needed_ to do. The moment you and Mabel were born, I knew that I just _had_ make sure that you weren't going to end up like me, that you wouldn't have to go through anything that I did, no matter what it took to do so. I would make sure that you were happy, that you had friends… but more importantly, that you'd be _safe_."

The blonde pulled the mask back up, patting his brother on the shoulder.

"Trust me when I say that this is just a bump in the troublesome road called life- don't let what others say get you down, let alone dictate the choices YOU make through it. Steel your heart and fight for what YOU believe- though not to the extent that they'll think it's "Volcano 2.0", ne?"

Hearing no response, he rubbed his brother's cap-covered head understandingly and leaned back up, knowing the boy had a lot on his mind.

"Whether you choose to listen to my words or that card's is your choice. But my ramblings aside, I can only say this: you can either stay as a person whose heart is as brittle as coal with their trust set on old, rusted lies, or you can _fight._ You can fight against anything that tries to block your path, be it false words and claims, and I assure you that you'll grow into a great man whose heart is as precious as gold and their resolve as tough as diamond."

With those last words, Naruto handed his brother the card back before spinning on his feet and going back into the Shack, leaving the boy to his thoughts. Once he heard the door click closed, Dipper shoved his hands and the card into his pockets, moving towards the forest. He had a lot to think about. Unbeknownst to him, two sets of eyes were focused on him behind the cover of the gift shop door.

"So, you think the brat will be alright?"

Naruto leaned against the doorframe, his eyes closed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he will be. Besides, he's taking a walk out in the woods, right?"

Stan raised an eyebrow and looked back out at Dipper along with Soos. "Yeah."

"…He'll be just fine."

Soos shared a glance with his boss before shrugging his shoulders, discretely passing a thin note to N, neither noticing that a pair of curious, forest-green orbs had flickered up and witnessed the exchange. "Well, if you say the little dude'll be fine, then I'll just get back to sweeping the floors."

Wendy and Mabel watched as the trio went to their own devices, Soos with his broom while Stan and N went deeper into the building. Emerald irises stared at a certain blonde as he rubbed his mask covered cheek somberly before turning to the female twin beside her, their interest no longer on the magazine in her hands.

"Mysterious, huh?"

Mabel nodded, dazed as she stared curiously at her older brother as he walked away. "Yeah…"

"What do you think is going through that skull of his?"

"I… I don't know anymore…"

After hearing the younger girl's hazy reply, she tore her gaze away from her fellow female and lifted her eyes back up to take a peek at the twins' older brother, pupils dilating in surprise at the sight of the piece of paper that was now dangling half-way out of his back pocket. Wendy squinted, trying to read the tiny lettering visible.

 _'_ … _Crimson has met with the old boss? What the heck does that mean?'_ She tilted her head up, looking at the back of the blonde's head as if he was insane. Old boss? _Crimson_? Just what the hell was this dude up to?! _'Ugh. Don't tell me it's Stan 2.0…'_

As if reacting to her thoughts, Naruto's head swivelled around, intoxicating cerulean boring into bewildered emerald. As she held against his intense, fixated stare, Wendy felt her limbs suddenly became heavy; as if her bones had hardened to metal and her flesh morphed into concrete. Time seemed to slow to a stop, and everything else was but a blur. Their focus was locked on each other and, at that moment, nothing else seemed to matter. As she remained like a deer caught in the headlights under the Pines' fierce, azure watch, the Corduroy felt her head give a dull throb at the familiarity of his stare as he regarded her with a sort of… _knowing_ look. Wendy snapped herself out of her stupor at his raising of an eyebrow, her eyes darting from side to side as her surroundings began to re-animate.

What just happened?

She skimmed from person to person, checking if anyone else had been having the same experience, before her attention landed once more on the enigmatic blonde as he stalked off. She felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance as he whirled his head away the second she caught his eyes. She'd seen that amused glint; the bastard knew and was mocking her, wasn't he? She could just _feel_ his smug smirk from her spot behind the counter. She let out a sigh and shook her head. This was far too troublesome for a work day. She kicked her feet up onto the mahogany desk and leaned back in her seat, flipping through the magazine in her hands again.

* * *

[Flashback End]

Dipper shook his head out of his memories before scratching his head in contemplation, finally remembering the strange line he had forgotten during that particular conversation.

 _" Well, this layer at least…_ _"_

What had N meant by that? Was there more to the piece of paper than he thought?

Dipper flipped the card to the back and to the front, inspecting it for anything out of order, even going as far as to scratch the words to see if some letters would disappear. Seeing no change, he allowed his arm to go limp, the limb dragging the card down with it. Just as he was about to sigh, his face contorted into a grimace as a thin beam of sunlight hit his face. He quickly moved his head out of the way, searching his surroundings for the source of the annoyance. He was surprised to see that it was coming from the side of the object in his hands, where the plastic cover had split in half in a corner. He moved his free hand to hold on to one of the halves of clear wrapping.

"Huh… Maybe if I took this off-"

 ***CRASH***

Dipper's plans were interrupted by a large conifer tree suddenly falling right in front of him, the scratchy leaves stabbing at his legs as the trunk was mere centimetres away from crushing his toes.

"GAH!" A frightened yelp escaped the terrified teen's mouth, his eyes wide and horrified. He quickly pulled his legs back, letting out a brief, relieved sigh when he realized he had been lucky enough to not be hit by a branch. But the moment of happiness was short-lived as his panic came barrelling straight back. "What in the heck?! Who would- why-!"

As if some deity decided to answer his questions, a brown blur smashed into the tree in front of him, kicking up sawdust and dirt everywhere. Dipper coughed and covered his face with an arm while the other was frantically waving in front of his mouth, as if the action would keep the tiny, irritating particles away. When his vision finally cleared, he was greeted by the ridiculous scene of a furred figure lying on its back as it used the tree's back to scratch its long hair.

"Ugggghh… YES! My head hurts from having to make this thing fall, but it was WORTH IT!"

The birth-marked boy could only gape in incredulity at the sight in front of him. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the display, his jaw dropping more and more as his brain took in the strange creature's appearance. He didn't expect the cause of the near-loss of his ability to walk to be some sort of human and… cow, hybrid!

The beast was tall… VERY tall, not to mention hairy. Horns similar to that of a bull's jutted out the sides of its skull, just above its droopy cow ears. Locks of dark-brown hair escaped the grasp of the crimson yamaka covering the top of its head, a couple strands falling a few centimetres above its black eyes. A long moustache ran down its bovine snout, just in front of its ponytailed, light-brown beard. Its torso was reminiscent to that of a human's, though its chest and forearms were covered in thick, bushy fur. Half of the strange animal's bottom half was covered by what seemed to be either a towel or a loincloth, but its furry, inhuman legs and hooves remained visible.

Dipper shook his head disbelievingly, he even pinched himself in order to double check whether or not this was some sort of dream or hallucination. Seeing no change, his jaw hung, the full realization of the fact that this was actually happening in reality smacking him right in the face.

"Y… You've gotta be kidding me…" He muttered, his voice nothing but a hoarse whisper. The mysterious being froze its actions, an ear twitching. Dipper gasped before slapping his hands in front of his mouth. He soon realized that it was all for naught, the bull-man's head snapping towards him in surprise.

"You…" Its gruff voice grunted as it stood up to its full height, the guttural growl distinctly male. Dipper flinch, feeling smaller than ever as the beast towered over him. He looked around, hoping to whatever deity was around that it was talking to someone else. The creature saw the human look around nervously and huffed. "Yes, _you_!"

The boy jumped before responding uncertainly. "Uh… y-yeah?"

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Ever since the tree was knocked down and nearly hit me."

The half human, half animal froze at his words, apprehensively surveying his surroundings. Its eyes were almost… fearful. He tilted his head to the side confusedly, an inquisitive look on his face, a movement that wasn't missed by the oddity before him. It shook his head before leaning forward, making Dipper wince and freeze. He heard sniffing and felt his hat shift at every inhale. He stood stock still, knowing that it was taking in his scent. Obscured from his view, the minotaur look-alike's eyes lit up in recognition.

 _'So, THIS is who they meant.'_ It leaned back, peering down at the young Pines from his height, staring into the boy's eyes. _'His eyes… they show doubt and uncertainty, and something tells me it isn't just surprise from his sudden discovery of my kind. I can practically SMELL the waves of emotional issues rolling off of him. Talk about a "blast to the past", eh, boss?'_

While the monster became lost in his thoughts, Dipper seemed to be on the same boat.

 _'It looks like one of those half-human, half-animal things from Greek mythology!'_ Dipper forcefully repelled the urge to shiver when it just continued to glare down at him silently. He clenched the card tightly in his hand for comfort and was surprised when it didn't bend. Now that he wasn't actually holding it like some fragile piece of china, he realized that it felt more like some sort of credit card rather than a plastic-protected piece of paper. ' _I didn't even realize! But it looks so old and weak on the outside, why does it feel like a small, rectangular sheet of metal? Hah, to think I probably wouldn't have found out about this if I wasn't so put off by the- the animal thing! I seriously can't believe I nearly forgot about the monster right in front of me! Wait. Why is it just staring at me? Should… Should I say something?'_

"…Is everything alright?"

The boy's voice snapped the beast out of its reverie. The creature's body flinched, its glazed, onyx eyes regaining life as it blinked rapidly. It shook its head a few times before jumping off of the tree it had been standing on throughout the whole ordeal. It stood right in front of the short teen, its stature easily dwarfing the human's. It knelt down and leaned forwards, snout mere centimetres from the Pines' forehead. It took one more sniff, before pulling back and taking two steps away from the young male, much to the twin's relief. It kept its vision locked on Dipper's face, head tilted to the side as it finally spoke up.

"That's a question _I_ should be asking _you_ , boy… You REAK of emotional issues."

Dipper's eyes widened and he immediately turned his stare to the forest floor, ashamed.

"I…"

He shut his eyes, hands tightening into shaking fists. He didn't dare look back up. He could feel its shadowy coals keeping watch on his form. He heard it huff- or was that a sigh? -and the sound of rustling grass and shifting clothing reached his ears. He felt a massive hand rest itself on his head and ruffle the hair and hat on his head comfortingly. He immediately looked up, baffled, and found himself staring into sympathetic, yet understanding, ebony irises. It gave him a soft smile before standing up onto its feet- hooves? -and spun on its heels. It dropped to its knees once more and glanced back at him, sending an amused and fond smile at his confused expression.

"Come on." It gestured to its hair-covered back with a thumb, chuckling at Dipper's incredulous look. "Don't worry, you can trust me. Jump up and hold on."

Despite still being skeptical about whether the beast had good intentions or not, the cinnamon-haired teen hopped up onto the creature's back, clenching locks of its surprisingly clean back hair in his fists tightly. If he tried to run away, there would've been the chance that the thing would have given chase- one he knew he would probably lose considering its physique. When it took a gargantuan leap forwards, his eyes widened into dinner plates as he bit his bottom lip to prevent from screaming, fearing that he would distract the monster as it jumped from tree to tree and caused it to fall, leading to definite injury or, worse, unexpected death. After a few moments of petrifying fear, he let himself calm as the wind brushed against his cheeks in a surprisingly soothing manner. He craned his head from the scenery to the head of his current mode of transportation. Tentatively, still unsure of whether the amount of curiosity he currently held was more than enough to bypass his need for safety, he spoke.

"Urm… excuse me?" It gave a grunt, its eyes flashing back to look at him for a split-second before going back to focusing on their path. "It might be a bit late for this, but my name's Dipper Pines. Do, uh… could you tell me what yours is- if you have one, of course -and what exactly you are?"

Dipper felt its torso rumble as it gave a low laugh. He didn't need to look to know that a wide grin was plastered on its face. Not even moving to face him, it responded. "Of course I got one! The name's Chutzpar, kid. As for what I am, that would be a manotaur."

"A… manotaur?"

"Yeah. Half man, half… uh… taur! Yeah, that's right. Taur. Anyway, I'm surprised you didn't know what I was the moment you saw me. After all, didn't your kind already discover us before? I remember hearing about a human meeting another Manotaur centuries ago, asking the same question you just did. The idiot spelt it wrong though. What did they call us again… mehno, mono…?"

"Minotaur?" Dipper piped up helpfully, making it snap its fingers in remembrance.

"Yep! That's it. Man, our ancestors were so angry about that mishap!"

Another chuckle escaped its lips- wait, did it even have lips?

"You guys aren't now?"

"Nah, we let go of that a long while ago. Well, maybe not _that_ long. I think it was twelve or eleven years ago when we did."

A spear of ice shot itself into Dipper's spine. Why was it always _that_ time frame?

"…Wait, could you repeat that?"

He felt the manotaur's back tense. Dipper moved his head past Chutzpar's shoulder and saw his face scrunched into a grimace, as if he had just made a mistake.

"Eh, urm… never mind all that boring history stuff! We're nearly there!"

Cocoa spheres narrowed in suspicion, the change in subject too sudden to be inconspicuous. Dipper's lips curved to the side in thought, before he hung his head in resignation as he chose to go with the flow, knowing there was nothing he could do to change Chutzpar's mind. He let his brain register the manotaur's previous words, blinking in silent realization when a thought crossed his mind.

"Where is 'there' exactly?" The sight of the manotaur's vicious smirk made him shiver, the cold feeling of dread clawed up his back. He didn't like this at all. A sinister smile like that would NEVER lead to anything but possible nightmare-inducing situations. He should know. After all, _that_ smirk was eerily reminiscent to the one Naruto and Kurama wielded whenever they were about to prank some poor, hapless sap. It was a universally terrifying force to be reckoned with. "C-Chutzpar, what are you- THE HELL?!"

They had reached the end of the treeline and Chutzpar's smirk morphed into a malicious grin, which only grew at the boy's aghast yell when he went soaring into the air. Right in the direction of a sturdy mountainside. Dipper's screams for help and the curses he spat at the seemingly insane manotaur was drowned out by Chutzpar's maniacal laughter.

"WHERE YOU ASK?! THERE!"

"YOU IDIOT, WE'RE GONNA CRA- AAAAAAAAH!"

Everything seemed to be in slow motion to the young teen, mud-brown orbs frozen in widened petrification, jaw hanging as he wailed his throat raw. The thick, unmoving wall of earth was coming closer and closer, much to his palpitating heart's dismay. Mere seconds before impact, sense managed to tug his thoughts a centimetre out of the dark recesses of fear. He tightened his hold on Chutzpar's long hair and immediately ducked, curling himself into the smallest form possible, intending to have the unstable manotaur take the brunt of the collision. The sound of a deafening crash rumbled through his ears, making him shut his eyes in fright. He flinched at the feeling of dust and rubble grazing him. After a few more moments of screaming, the ringing in his ears finally subsided, allowing the sound of chanting to pierce into his pulsing head. His eyelids fluttered open, dizzy and unfocused eyes narrowing as he attempted to make sense of their blurry surroundings. Once Dipper managed to regain his bearings, he let out a gasp of awe. If he ever had to refer to anything in order to define "Man Cave", he'd immediately point to here. Dumbbells, barbell bench press machines and other exercise equipment were all lined up in one side, a foosball tables and dart boards were set up in a corner… there was even a hot tub and a gong placed against another wall! There was also one more, tiny, little detail…

There were manotaurs _everywhere._

Some were doing push-ups with one or two of their brethren sitting on their back while others were challenging each other in arm-wrestling or in darts and foosball; but there was no denying that most of them were clumped around the competitive manotaurs, chanting and cheering in deep, booming voices.

"Whoa…"

Dipper hopped off of Chutzpar's back, staring and trying to comprehend his surroundings, his mouth ajar. Chutzpar himself just let out a small chuckle at the Pines' amazement, a fond smile on his face.

"Awesome, right?"

"Yeah…" The human absentmindedly responded.

He let out another chuckle at Dipper's breathy reply, waiting patiently, knowing that his attention was currently elsewhere. The wonder soon dissipated, leaving Dipper to flinch back into reality. He turned to face his current guide and sheepishly scratched the back of his head at the amused raised eyebrow the manotaur was giving him. He awkwardly coughed into his fist, eyes fixated on the ground for a second before darting back to face the grinning beast.

"Urm, anyway, this place is great and all… but why, if you don't mind me asking, did you bring me here exactly?"

Dipper tensed. There it was again, that ghastly grin that would send him into another catatonic fit. He valiantly fought the urge to take a fearful step back, despite it being quite a logical decision, considering that _that_ horrid smile had just led to him entering a room _through a WALL_ a mere few minutes ago.

"Well kid, before I can answer that question, we gotta gather everyone first."

"Wait, _everyone_?!" He waved his arms horizontally in a negative gesture, eyes flittering around at the monsters twice his height and size, counting the number of the creatures in the cave. "I don't think that's a good idea- Oh, boy…"

Chutzpar had already walked to the gong, the mallet in hand as he readied it to bang the instrument as hard as he could. Dipper's hands flew to his ears, hoping to block out the ear-piercing roar of the gong. He found his face scrunching into a grimace, as if he had eaten the sourest lemon ever created, ears thrumming in pain. He shouldered through and shoved his hands more forcefully against his head, knowing that the agony would have been worse without them.

"BEASTS OF _MAN_ , CREATURES OF UNADULTERATED **MANLINESS**!" At Chutzpar's booming howl, every manotaur paused in their activities, quickly forming a semi-circle around their brother and the child. He grabbed Dipper by the back of his collar and dropped him into the centre of the half-circle, all attention on him. "I BRING YOU, ANOTHER HAIRLESS CHILD!"

 _'Another…?'_ He quickly shook his head out of his thoughts, the feeling of many sets of eyes scrutinizing his smaller form giving him a sense of unease. "Uh… S'up?"

"There's too many to name with the little time we have, so I'll just tell you a few of 'em. There's Pubetaur, over there is Testosteraur and the one here beside me is Pituitaur." As he called out their names and pointed, the called manotaurs gave a gruff nod, their piercing, ink eyes steely. "Now that you know a few of their names, tell 'em yours."

"My name is Dipper Pines." He saw flashes of recollection and nostalgia appear in the eyes of the once-energetic beasts until they disappeared as quickly as they came. He made a mental note of it as he stood there anxiously, focus darting from one stern face to another. Seconds of silence passed, and the manotaurs still stared at him expectantly, not saying a word. He discretely glanced at Chutzpar, uncertain of what to do. He saw his friend roll his wrist, telling him to go on. He shot him a dubious look, still unsure of what exactly was expected of him. His mind then chose to throw him a bone and replayed the names of the three manotaurs that had been introduced before him. Realization struck him like a bolt of lightning and he uttered two more words tentatively. "…the Destructaur?"

It was like a switch had been flipped. Emotionless masks were then exchanged for eager smiles and grins, all the manotaurs giving him a nod of approval. One of them, Testosteraur if he remembered right, stepped forward, addressing Chutzpar.

"So, what brings _this_ child here, brother? He needing our help too?"

The yamaka-wearing manotaur gave a quick jerk of the head in confirmation. That made Dipper eye them skeptically, voicing his thoughts.

"Help with what, exactly?"

Chutzpar gave him _that_ smirk one more time, the one that, to his utter horror, was being mirrored by every single manotaur that currently surrounded him.

"With what else? Becoming a man!" Without speaking another word, Dipper immediately moved to rush away from the insane monsters, but was promptly picked up from behind and lifted in to the air. The muscular arms around him trapped his own to the sides of his torso, rendering him immobile. He felt himself being moved and paused his struggling to look up, blinking at the sight of the mural imbedded into the rocky wall of the Man Cave. Chutzpar patted the wall with a smug smile. "No running off, brat. Now, to learn the ways of the manotaur, you must memorize this."

The twin gazed at the wall confusedly. It read "WE SMASH, WE CRASH, ATBASH!".

He did a double-take, tilting his head confusedly as he re-read mural multiple times. Once he had convinced himself that the last word definitely was _not_ some sort of typo, not to the manotaurs at least, he sighed and hung his head, feeling a sweat drop of exasperation slide down the side of his head. He made another mental note; but this time, it was for him to see if he could help the manotaurs with grammar… after they were done helping him with manliness, of course. He shook his head and began listening with rapt attention as Chutzpar and the rest of his "brothers" began to teach.

* * *

[Time Skip]

[With Wendy]

The redhead whistled as she parked the Mystery Cart in its usual spot. As she slowly made the cart shimmy into its parking space, she leaned her head out to see if there was anything nearby that would damage it even in the slightest way. She had scratched the automobile once before, and she had definitely learned her lesson. One tiny line of white paint scraped would equal to an hour of her boss's yelling; very annoying and _repetitive_ yelling. She slid off of her seat, expertly twirling the ring of keys in her hand with practiced ease. After a quick glance at the white lines painted on the compact dirt, she nodded in approval at the sight of the cart not bypassing the drawn boundary.

' _Perfect parking. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.'_ Her face broke out into a grin, a quiet snicker escaping her control. She turned to the bag placed on the passenger seat of the stylized golf cart, eagerly reaching her arm out to grab at its handles. Once this last chore was done, it'd be three minutes left until the end of her shift. She was about to grab the bag of supplies her surly employer had gruffly ordered her to buy, only to pause when the sound of monotonous thumping against hollow wood reached her ears.

Her grin contorted into a frown, her brows furrowing, perplexed. She curved her head to the side, facing the source of the noise. She blinked at the shock of golden hair at the deck and silently sneaked to the side of the Mystery Shack, paying careful attention to where she stepped, intending to keep the crunching of gravel to a minimum. Twenty tense seconds passed and she leaned flat against the wooden wall. She quietly leaned to peek past the sharp corner of the building, giving her boss's most mysterious great-nephew a once-over. The teen was sat on one of the chairs set on the deck, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled under his chin. Sun-kissed locks shined underneath the sunset light, his hair as bright and wild as the petals of a dandelion. His stare was cold, icy. His heady, sapphire iris glared at the forest with such intensity, she began to wonder whether the trees would either completely freeze over or spontaneously combust. But despite his torso being frozen with his head seemingly suspended in mid-air, his right leg jerked up and down wildly, showing his impatience.

 _'Well, that explains the noise… but what is he doing?'_

She couldn't help but continue to watch him, her curiosity only growing when she noticed him visibly relax. While she had been stuck in her own world, Naruto himself had been focused on the swarm of thoughts buzzing in his mind.

* * *

[With Naruto, A Few Minutes Prior]

 _" What's up with your eye? It isn't Halloween yet, freak!_ _"_

 _" Oi, get back here shrimp! You got no other use than being a punching bag!_ _"_

 _" What's with the shitty mask? Tryin' to be 'cool' loser- what the hell happened to your cheeks?! HAHA! And here I thought your face couldn't get any more fucked up!_ _"_

Naruto could feel his fury burn hotter as each memory flashed into his mind. He felt his fangs lengthen, his eye faintly aching as it switched its colour to vicious scarlet in his rage. His right leg was nothing but a blur, its repeated collision against the wooden deck the only thing sating his urge to punch something- _anything_. So lost was he in his haze of madness, that his sensitive ears didn't even register the golf cart parking dangerously close by.

 _'Of all the damn games- OF ALL THE DAMN_ _CARDS_ _! He just had to play and get_ that _one. Damn it all to hell!'_ He felt his interlocking fingers tighten their grip against each other, a low, guttural growl exiting his throat without consent. Normally, he would have admonished himself for the slip in control, but considering the cause, he waved it off. _'Kurama, where the hell are you? The sky's nearly fucking black. Tipping her off about Susan and Stan isn't going to keep Mabel distracted for long, you mangy mutt. If you don't get here soon, she'll start asking questions. I swear if you-!'_

Naruto flinched, finally noticing the rose-coloured tint in his vision, a stab of fear piercing his heart as more memories flew into his mind.

 _ **" You need to control your rage, brat. With your powers, you could potentially **_**KILL** _ **others of your kind at the mere hint of annoyance. The moment you become furious, all hell will break loose.**_ **"**

 _" N-No! PLEASE! Stop- I-I promise, we ain't gonna mess with you anymore. Just FUCKING STOP!_ _"_

He inhaled a sharp breath, the glowing vermillion immediately losing its radiance. The red chakra escaping his iris dissipated into the air as it morphed back to cobalt. He slowly let out the air he had been holding, his lungs giving a painful throb. He forced himself to stay calm, pushing the negative influence of his partner's chakra away from his mind, keeping the violent energy at bay. He continued to scowl and stomp his foot, but this time his anger was leaning towards a different reason.

 _'I can't believe I nearly lost control, and over some idiotic remarks too! Kami damn it… if Kurama finds out about this, he would never let me live it down. But it's not like I don't have a good reason. I mean, come on! I would have been fine if I was the only one that card had been used on, but on my LITTLE BROTHER of all people? I- I gotta calm down. I mean, who knows? Maybe this is exactly what he needs! But what if-'_

Naruto's entire body tensed, his eye widening for a fraction of a second before transforming into emotionless indifference. His canines, which he didn't even realize were still elongated, had shrunk back to their normal length… _without_ him wrenching for control. He felt a serenity-inducing aura graze his form, his gaze softening and his body sagging as the movements of his leg slowed down to a light tap.

 _'What the…?'_

He shut his eyelids, tuning his senses to the nature around him. Despite his mind still being hazy, he managed to search the area for any sort of being nearby. His attention was immediately caught by the grass-coloured, humanoid form straight to his right. The soothing feeling the green energy emanated was… intoxicating. He desperately wanted the figure to come closer, the source of the painfully familiar feeling too far away for his liking. He bit back a whimper, the comforting presence's close proximity tantalizing him. The golden-haired male gritted his teeth, wanting nothing more than to be able to discern the identity of the silhouette, to see who was torturously causing his heart to clench at the agonizing familiarity.

He swore that the name was right on the tip of his tongue!

He felt annoyance build up when he couldn't wrestle clarity into his mind, only for the aura to wash it away once more. It wasn't until a gust of wind blew past, causing a scent to waft into his nose, that he realized who was making him so calm. Pine trees, fruity shampoo and feminine moisturizer. Of course.

Wendy.

He sighed, letting his body slump fully against the back of the wooden seat, a small smile underneath his mask. He should've known. After all, no one else had this sort of effect on him. He let out a hollow chuckle, lifting a hand to slap against his face before sliding it down past his chin. The sound of a dead branch snapping and a sharp inhalation made him smile. He craned his neck to the side, tilting his head to the side as he watched the redhead amusedly. She was frozen in place, only half of her body was visible past the corner of the Shack. Her face was stuck in a wince, gazing in horror at the foot obscured from his view due to the deck. Hearing him chuckle, she swung her head sharply to her left, a light embarrassed flush on her cheeks.

"Hello there, are you alright? You seem to be a bit flustered." Naruto's smile evolved into a grin when Wendy only became redder.

She walked out of her previous hiding place, shoving a hand into a pocket and laid her other one against the back of her neck, giving the masked Pines a guilty smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just got a bit startled, that's all."

"Ah, I see…" He looked back to the forest once more, smile still on his face.

Wendy stared at him curiously. He was relaxed, his body slumped against the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. His arms laid limply across his stomach, watching the forest calmly as he waited patiently. His current composure was a stark contrast to his previous state about a minute ago, in which he looked as if he was ready to rip someone's head off. Her eyes flickered from the plastic back in the cart to her fellow teen. She let out a soft breath, and walked over to the golfing vehicle. She grabbed the bag and thrust a hand into its contents. Feeling the familiar, cool texture of a metal can, she wrapped her hand around it and pulled it out, grinning at the Pitt Cola logo. She let out a sharp whistle, gaining Naruto's attention.

"Yo, N! Catch!" With a heave, she chucked the can at the contemplating blonde. He snatched it from the air with a hand, giving it a glance. After reading the pink, stylized lettering, he raised an eyebrow at the grinning Wendy.

"I never knew cans of drinks were included in the list of hardware tools for Soos." His comment only made her grin grow wider. She walked over to the deck and leaned against the wall.

"Weeell… I guess you could call it a finder's fee, yeah?" She took another can out of the bag before placing the see-through container by her feet. She cracked it open and took a sip, letting out a sigh of happiness at the taste of the carbonated drink. She then turned to Naruto, raising an eyebrow of her own. "You ain't gonna say anything about this to Stan, are ya?"

"Hah, 'course not. If he finds out, just tell him that I asked for the soda. He owes me a lot of things, so a couple of bucks for some cans of cola isn't gonna be a big deal."

Wendy blinked in slight surprise, a bit unsure of what to say after that. A glint caught her eye, and she saw the badge pinned to his hoodie. She winced at the reminder of the… situation, with the ghosts and tightened her grip on her can. "Uh… hey."

"Hmm?"

"I know that I already said this before, but it was kinda rushed back then. So, uh… thanks."

"For what?"

"For, ya know… the thing you did for us at the convenience store. It was cool of you to let us off the hook, and I'm sorry that I dragged Mabel and Dipper into that whole mess."

Naruto chuckled and took a sip of his own can of Pitt Cola, unknowingly baffling the redhead. When had he opened it?

"Ah, well… don't mention it. Although you _did_ , as you said, "dragged Mabel and Dipper" into that situation, I suppose if I hadn't been as neglectful as I had been to my younger siblings that day, perhaps they wouldn't have felt the need to go with you to the convenience store in the first place. So, you're welcome for saving you from Blubs; but thank you for keeping my siblings company." For the second time in the past few minutes, Wendy was rendered speechless. She could only gape silently, once again unsure of what to say. N raised his can up to his lips, only to pause half-way. He pulled it away, his eye sliding to the side, scrutinizing Wendy. "…Though, seriously. Don't mention it."

This elicited a stifled giggle from the girl, which gradually grew into a guffaw. Naruto himself cracked a happy smile, chuckling along as well. Once the laughter subsided, Wendy wiped a tear away and beamed cheerfully at the other eighteen-year-old. The content and peaceful look he had in his eye as he drank brought her a sense of delight, despite the strange tones of nostalgia that were causing her head to pulsate. Seeing the difference in his mood from before she had arrived until now, she couldn't help but smile along with him. For once, he wasn't sarcastic, indifferent or mildly pleased. He was just… happy. She closed her eyes and laid her head back against the wooden planks behind her, only for them to snap open a moment later in realization. Why _was_ he so furious earlier? And since when did she know how to read his current state of mind?! WAIT! More importantly…

"How the hell are you drinking with a mask on your face?!" She shouted, incredulity evident in her voice. Naruto didn't pause in his drinking, continuing to gulp down the carbonated soda until none was left. He swiped his arm over his mask, as if he was wiping liquid off of his uncovered face. Not a single drop of the sweetened liquid was dripping down his mask! He gave her an eye-smile, and Wendy knew that he was wearing that same smug smirk from earlier again.

"Trade secret." Just as the female opened her mouth to further interrogate him, he cut her off before she could speak, pointing to the treeline in front of them. "Oh, look. It seems everyone else is back."

Wendy narrowed her eyes at him, taking a mental note on his behaviour before turning to greet the others arriving. She silently observed with N as Mabel, Stan and Soos hopped out of the handyman's pick-up truck while Dipper blurred out of the forest on the multi-tailed fox's- K, if she remembered correctly -back. The young teen's clothes were… ragged, to say the least. His vest was reduced to torn rags, his shirt was ripped in several places and his shorts were torn even shorter. His hat was looped around the hand holding on to the enormous canine while his other one held something that glinted under the sun's yellow and orange lights. The fox skidded to a stop right in front of N, who had stood up the moment the two jumped past the trees. Dipper grinned up at his brother as the other male smirked amusedly down at his brother, who was only a few centimetres shorter as he sat on the back of Kurama.

"Found anything interesting in the forest, Dipper?" He asked, a hand now scratching K behind an ear. Dipper nodded, proudly holding up a golden rectangle for him to see. Naruto nodded in approval, ruffling the younger teen's wild, chocolate hair fondly. "Good job, Dip. I'm proud of you."

The boy beamed, preening at his older brother's praise. Wendy peered at the golden card, wondering why it seemed so familiar. Then, after a moment of pondering, it clicked.

It was the black card that fell out of the manliness tester.

But it couldn't be… could it?

She put her can down on the ground and tapped N on the shoulder, pointing at the card once he turned to face her. "Can I see that for a second?"

He shrugged and passed it over, allowing Wendy to examine the object. It was cold and dense, definitely metallic. She bent it between her fingers, the card bending after enough pressure. It seemed to have around about the same density and durability as a credit card. Although it had a golden colouring and glittered when angled in the right way, it looked more like the gold was sprayed on. She then flipped it over, scanning the now diamond-font words.

 **[YOU ARE** _ **THE**_ **LI'L HUMAN!]**

She let out a short, sharp gasp, surprised at the change. Shocked emeralds then darted over to the other eighteen-year-old nearby- he didn't even seem fazed at all! Now that she thought about it, he didn't even see the new letters. He had only given the blank side a glance and immediately congratulated Dipper… as if he already knew what was there. As he placed Dipper's cap back on his head and cheekily pulled it down to obscure his vision, N glanced back at Wendy discretely. He gave her a nod and an eye-smile, teasingly putting a finger to his lips in the universal sign of "silence", as if he knew exactly what was going on in her head.

 _'How in the hell…?'_

Her mind then wandered back to earlier on in the day, back when she had _just_ found out about his friendship with her father and her boss… back when she had read what was on the note Soos had passed him.

 _'Just… who_ are _you?'_

* * *

 **10.) Ivnvnyvi, blf xzm drm drgslfg z urtsg,  
Zoo blf nfhg wl, rh xlnkovgv gsv kilxvwfiv irtsg.**

 **[Crazy7634: If you guys are** _ **really**_ **curious about what exactly Dipper and Mabel were doing during that day, don't worry. You'll find out next chapter. I just felt like having 15k+ words is enough for one chapter. After all, it isn't exactly an easy number to top; besides, the next chapter might not even be two thirds this long. I don't know. The length of each chapter just… happens. I can't exactly decide on an exact number. xD]**


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